Plagues and Peoples reflects Health and HistoryWhy, and How

This 1997 revision of the original 1976 Plagues and Peoples appeared the same year as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, and both contributed greatly to tracking known vectors thoughtfully across the globe, ancient to modern, to give us a more even-handed grasp of history. Most Americans are aware of the immense role that previously unknown European diseases played in the European takeover of the Americas, but this fascinating book follows the role of diseases in the fall of the Roman Empire, the success of the Mongol Empire, the great 17th-century European epidemics, the fragility of caste systems in India, and the role of medicine in the modern world where AIDS, Ebola, and vaccinations color our global interconnectedness. The science is well-explained, from microparasites to macroparasites, viruses to bacteria, and the transition of sporadic outbreaks to widespread epidemics to routine childhood diseases and vaccinations. Careful reading of the impact of mass