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One of the best books I've read
Examining a Plague Stoically
How people confront extreme circumstances
Let love in
I loved it, AND I do not expect anyone else to.

The Plague
Albert Camus
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679720219
Release Date: 1991-05-07

Amazon.com

The Nobel prize-winning Albert Camus, who died in 1960, could not have known how grimly current his existentialist novel of epidemic and death would remain. Set in Algeria, in northern Africa, The Plague is a powerful study of human life and its meaning in the face of a deadly virus that sweeps dispassionately through the city, taking a vast percentage of the population with it.

Book Description

A haunting tale of human resilience in the face of unrelieved horror, Camus' novel about a bubonic plague ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best books I've read.......2007-05-30

I was incredibly taken in by The Plague. The languaga is so ,agnificent that I imagine the original French must be even more so. The way Camus conveys the mindsets of the townfolk serves as a perfect example of the hu,an condition.

Examining a Plague Stoically .......2007-05-27

The Plague is an okay read about survival during a plague. It is low key and non-sensational and even has a passage that says that the author wants to record the events without sensationalism. Unfortunately, this grim, manly stoicism makes the book a little boring.

The book makes you think about how you would react during a time of extreme crisis by reading about how the main character, Rieux, and the citizens react. When normal life comes to a standstill, Rieux and the citizens of Oran are forced to think about what is important in life. They are slow to understand that their lives are changing permanently because of the plague. They find it unbelievable that their daily lives could be interrupted by the pestilence. Fear causes the citizens to seriously reflect on their lives because daily routines and mundane consciousness have been disturbed after the death of Michel from the plague: "And it was then that fear, and with fear serious reflection, began."

They are taken by surprise by the plague and believe that it cannot happen to them: "In this respect our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves, in other words they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences....How should they have given thought to anything like plague, which rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences exchange of views."

The stoppage of normal life is inconceivable to those who have not experienced the plague. It still remains hard for the people to comprehend the plague and its history of horror as the spring comes on: "...cartloads of bodies rumbling through London's ghoul-hearted darkness, nights and days filled always, everywhere, with the eternal cry of human pain. No, all these horrors when not near enough as yet even to ruffle the equanimity of that spring afternoon. The clang of an unseen streetcar came through the window, briskly refuting cruelty and pain."

Rieux himself has trouble comprehending that the plague would become full-blown in a such a town as Oran, which has its share of eccentrics such as Grand: "He realized how absurd it was, but simply could not believe that a pestilence on the great scale could befall a town where people like Grand could be found, obscure functionaries cultivating harmless eccentricies."

I particularly liked Rieux's reaction to Rambert's accusation that he was reacting to the plague and the people affected by it too abstractly. Rieux silently mocks Rambert's idea that he lives in a world of abstractions: "Could that term "abstraction" really apply to the days that he spent in his hospital while the plague was battening on the town, raising its death toll to five hundred victims a week....Still when an abstraction sets to killing you, you've got to get busy with it." Rieux plays on the word "abstraction" when substituting it for "evacuation" of the person who has the plague and has to be forcibly removed from the family who resists. He says that "...of course, he had pity, but what purpose did that serve?" He has to follow the rules of the quarantine during the plague. When children fall ill the mothers wail with "distraught abstraction" every evening as the doctor makes house calls. Rieux feels "bleak indifference" coming on as he handles so many cases like this. Rieux uses that indifference to survive the long hours of dealing with plague victims, remarking that, "To fight abstraction, you must have something of it in your own make up." He finds solace in his lack of emotion. But he does not expect Rambert to understand what he is going through. Rieux actually deals with heart-rending situations, but he must shut himself off from feeling too much pain about them.

How people confront extreme circumstances.......2007-05-05

It isn't trivial that Albert Camus studied philosophy. In this book, the Nobel Laureate uses a "plague" to explore how different people react to the hardships and incomprehensible nature of what is thrust upon them. It takes place in the town of Oran, where one day the rats start dying off, and the people quickly follow. The town is sealed off, and the characters have to deal with the isolation and and the bleakness of their circumstance, among other things. This is an excellent book about humanity, but if you are looking for a horror story or something filled with obvious bestseller suspense, look elsewhere. Camus keeps the reader interested throughout, but the interest is in the character of the people he populates the town with, not necessarily with the disease itself. I'd highly recommend it, but just know what you're getting into.

Let love in.......2007-04-09

In the city of Oran, something very bad is happening. Albert Camus' The Plague is a masterwork of 20th century literature as it examines the devestating effects of a deadly and bloody plague that breaks out all over the city. In the wake of a quarantine, Dr. Rieux and a handful of survivors band together to do what they can. In the long run, the only thing that any of them can really do to overcome the odds, is live. Though there are times when it is drawn out, The Plague manages to deliver an incredibly compelling story that examines human nature in the wake of incredible adversity, and it has never been done better since. The shocking imagery and perspectives presented here only further show Camus' mastery, and the equally shocking poignancy will surprise you even more so. Definitely not for everyone, The Plague is a masterpiece.

I loved it, AND I do not expect anyone else to........2007-04-02

I am always weary of sensationalist reviewers who say stuff like "this is one of top ten books ever", or "everyone must read this"....such platitudes are morally and intellectually presumptuous. This book holds a certain perspective, it is a powerful perspective, but it is not for everyone. Now on to the review

With the thousands of great books on the market, written over the generations, there is really no reason why someone should choose to read this particular book unless they belong to a particular niche. The Existential antecedent of post-modernism life is meaningless non-teleological pain but deal with it niche.

The book catalogs the unremarkable response of a merchant town to a remarkable event presented in an unremarkable way, a plague. The book focus's on the absurdity of the way the citizens act in response, and the absurdity in the way the Plague chooses who will die. Of course these themes are symbolic of Camus' philosophy, and is a good literary introduction to post-modernism and existentialism. But, honestly, as much as I love these schools of thought, unless you sympathize with them or are doing an in depth study of their geneses, there is really no reason to choose this book over another literary classic.

I loved it, and(not but)I do not expect anyone else to.

Plague of the Dead (The Morningstar Strain)

Average customer rating:

Excellent Ideas - Poor execution
Not bad, but a few complaints...
Plague of the Dead
Great Companion to "World War Z"
Plague of the "Dead"-End Ending

Plague of the Dead (The Morningstar Strain)
Z. A. Recht
Manufacturer: Permuted Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0978970705

Book Description

The end begins with a viral outbreak unlike anything mankind has ever encountered before. The infected are subject to delirium, fever, a dramatic increase in violent behavior, and a one-hundred percent mortality rate. Death. But it doesn't end there. The victims return from death to walk the earth. When a massive military operation fails to contain the plague of the living dead it escalates into a global pandemic. In one fell swoop, the necessities of life become much more basic. Gone are petty everyday concerns. Gone are the amenities of civilized life. Yet a single law of nature remains: Live, or die. Kill, or be killed. On one side of the world, a battle-hardened General surveys the remnants of his command: a young medic, a veteran photographer, a brash Private, and dozens of refugees, all are his responsibility-all thousands of miles from home. Back in the United States, an Army Colonel discovers the darker side of Morningstar virus and begins to collaborate with a well-known journalist to leak the information to the public... The Morningstar Saga has begun.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Ideas - Poor execution.......2007-06-28

I will generally read or watch anything zombie related so, of course, I ran to pick up a copy of Plague of Dead - unfortunately, I just as quickly had to put it down. Its a shame really, I LOVE the idea ZA Recht had for his infected/undead. Really, it was a great idea and that is why it gets two stars from me. The prose (or lack thereof) was awful. Long rambling on sentences. Character development done in one sentence. Just Awful. Plus the characters were so transparent that, personally, I couldn't keep them straight. The general became the captain and the private became the doctor as I read the confusing prose in each of the 5 chapters I managed to wade through.
Will I one day pick up Plague of the Dead and give it another shot? Maybe.
Do I wish that Mr. Recht had taken a little more time to develop a writing style before he ultimately slaughtered his own brillant idea?
YES!
This story has LOTS of potential (and I mean LOTS!). Its excellent ideas simply suffer from poor writing skills.

Not bad, but a few complaints..........2007-06-20

I'm a huge fan of zombie movies so dove into this book with great enthusiasm. It started strong, but a little after the halfway point it began to falter.

The beginning was great... a deadly virus appears in Africa and the international community does its best to quarantine the entire continent. This was great stuff...

But once the focus turned to the general and his rag-tag group of survivors making their way east to America, with an entirely superfluous stop in the Phillipines, I began to lose interest. I was hoping for more "big picture" stuff that outlined the extent of the zombie apocalypse. But instead, the book focused on the general and a few victims of a mysterious government agency on the hunt for answers, leaving me pretty much in the dark as to how bad things were across the world.

The set-up was great but the ending was a bit disappointing.

Plague of the Dead.......2007-05-28

Great story. Character development is very good. Plot is magnificent. There is a lot of action and you feel the excitement. You feel for the characters and get to like them. I didn't want to put the book down. Now that I am done I want more.

Great Companion to "World War Z".......2007-05-19

This Book has provided great characters and the storyline is excellent.Francis Sherman reminds me of Ben Raines of William Johnston "Out of the Ashes" and the struggle to survive is realistic with the sudden loss of known people.The character of N.S.A. agent Mason had me thinking of the actor,who played Fox Mulder on X-Files,as the renegade trying to redeem himself and help the one scientist to find a cure for the disease.The Book gives us a ground zero for the disease to spread over the world and is a great prequel to "World War Z".

Plague of the "Dead"-End Ending.......2007-05-15

I never got great resolution from this story. It just sort of died silently, doing a great disservice to the rest of the book. That's what I remember most about Plague of the Dead.

I love the Zombie apocolyptic genre of course, don't get me wrong. But even a Zombie story can have substance, and spectacular characters. First off, there is this scenario about a General...A GENERAL...deserting the Army. I for one just couldn't see a deserter as a hero. That was his doom in my eyes. No matter the reason, Zombies or Aliens, Generals don't desert. Because to do so in a society damned by the like of the walking dead is to take the things that have made humanity noble all these year and allow them to die as well.

Shame on you General. Don't you remember your first general order? "I will guard my post and everything within my post until properly relieved."
I don't think you were properly relieved.

-H

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction
Provocative, appealing and controversial
pharaohs lived in the 3rd century AD

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Provocative, appealing and controversial.......2006-08-02

Fomenko has succeeded to convincingly demonstrate the misconception about what "history" factually is... It is fiction and -like we can read and judge for ourselves- no science. It indeed is "make belief" only. I "discovered" Fomenko while studying the "old" history of Al Andaluz, Spain. Having found too many contradictions in available data, having seen too many forgeries as to pretend the importance of christianity for its decline, I ventured out to find Fomenko, who convinced me that we know little if anything for sure of the epoch before the XI-century. However, the integration of the Arabic-Islamic cultural history into the heavily distorted Western fails... There are some attempts to fit "the budding new religion" (Islam) into Fomenko's scheme, but they are too weak to be taken seriously and too often focussing on Turkey as the region where things started to influence the West, which is untrue at all.
Islam certainly was no "new religion" in the X-century. That the highly cultivated Al Andaluz ruler Mohammed-I could have been "mirrored" down in time into some myth about the "illiterate" founder of Islam itself is highly speculative. Nevertheless, Fomenko convinces me about the processes that were involved in forging a christian history. Intriguing and controversial as his books are, I recommend them as to rethink our current position in time and space and simply verify what was claimed. It is a "good" book, but not for bedtime reading... Mundus vult decipi, the world wants to be cheated. Fomenko's readers will understand why.

pharaohs lived in the 3rd century AD.......2006-02-16

Traces of white wine were found in Tutankhamen's tomb however there were no record of white wine in Egypt until the 3rd century AD, 1600 years after the young pharaoh died according to the traditional chronology. http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18925395.400
It can be interpreted as a contribution towards New Chronology theory that pharaohs lived in the 3rd century AD.

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made

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A plague upon your book, sir!
A question
Poorly Written
Major disappointment
Shocking

In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
Norman Cantor
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060014342
Release Date: 2002-04-16

Amazon.com

One-third of Western Europe's population died between 1348 and 1350, victims of the Black Death. Noted medievalist Norman Cantor tells the story of the pandemic and its widespread effects in In the Wake of the Plague.

After giving an overview, Cantor describes various theories about the medical crisis, from contemporary fears of a Jewish conspiracy to poison the water (and the resulting atrocities against European Jews) to a growing belief among modern historians that both bubonic plague and anthrax caused the spiraling death rates. Cantor also details ways in which the Black Death changed history, at both the personal level (family lines dying out) and the political (the Plantagenet kings may well have been able to hold onto France had their resources not been so diminished).

Cantor veers from topic to topic, from dynastic worries to the Dance of Death, and from peasants' rights to Perpendicular Gothic. This makes for amusing reading, though those seeking an orderly narrative may be frustrated. He also seems overly concerned with rumors of homosexual behavior, and his attempt to link the savage method of Edward II's murder to a cooling in global weather is a bit farfetched.

Cantor wears his considerable scholarship lightly, but includes a very useful critical biography for further reading. While not an entry-level text on the Black Death, In the Wake of the Plague will interest readers looking for a broader interpretation of its consequences. --Sunny Delaney

Book Description

The Black Death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, takingmillion lives. And yet, most of what we know about it is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren -- the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the awful end by respiratory failure -- are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was and how it made history remain shrouded in a haze of myths.

Now, Norman Cantor, the premier historian of the Middle Ages, draws together the most recent scientific discoveries and groundbreaking historical research to pierce the mist and tell the story of the Black Death as a gripping, intimate narrative.

Customer Reviews:

A plague upon your book, sir!.......2007-06-12

Professor Cantor is supposed to be a gentleman of academic standing, and, one supposes, learning. That he wrote a book of such ridiculously infantile proportions is a disgrace both to him, and to the company that saw fit to publish it. Neither seems to have any respect for the reader whatsoever. I pass over the juvenile summarisation of the history of England's Plantagent Kings (although one wonders whether Prof. Cantor has ever bothered to read primary accounts of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket), the insulting references to medieval religious attitudes, and the allegedly humourous asides that would produce sycophantic laughter only from students who need a decent grade. What had this reader throwing the book across the room before being half way through it, and being glad I had only borrowed it from the library not actually given over any money for it, was the learned medivialist's assertion that the largest gothic church in the world is in New York City. Um, that would be a gothic-style church, or perhaps even neo-gothic, what with the whole point of the new world being that it wasn't medival europe...

A question.......2007-06-08

Is ther any actual proof that there are more Eurpoean people who are immune to the HIV virus (or the 'AIDS disease' as Cantor puts it), because their ancestors had natural immunity to, or (obviously) survived, the plague? Can plague, which is bacterial, have any baring on peoples' immunity to a virus? I've never heard this before? Presumably it's being posited as a reason Europe is not as badly afflicted as Asia and Africa?

Poorly Written.......2007-05-01

This is my first review on Amazon. Like many of the previous reviewers, I found this book poorly edited and the transitions left me circling back to understand what the author wished to convey. I have a molecular biology background and bought the book with the hope that Cantor would actually develop the life and struggles of civilization post-plague. He appears to be more interested in the world of politics and religion at the time of the plague.

Major disappointment.......2007-01-24

I was expecting a book that would give me the latest scholarly thinking on the Black Death and its impact, having been interested in this period of history since High School. As the book is sub-titled "The Black Death and the World it made" by an Emeritus Professor of History et al., I would argue that that expectation was not unrealistic.

Its superficial, unsubstantiated and repetitive elements have all been documented in other reviews. In a book light on analysis or insight into the supposed topic of the book I was amazed that he spends five or more pages exploring the theory of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe on plagues coming from space. He says that in spite of their "impeccable scientific credentials" their theory has been ignored. Hoyle and Wirckramsinghe are also much quoted by creationists for their belief that there has not been enough time for evolution to work and life has been seeded from space. Creationists conveniently forget the seeding from space part but use it as evidence that there must have been divine intervention. These two gentlemen are renowned astrophysicists and astronomers but not to my knowledge epidemiologists or biologists, which is maybe why the theory doesn't get quoted much by experts in those disciplines. His second foray into the scientific world "Heritage of the African Rifts" is frankly bizarre and again a huge diversion from the supposed topic of the book.

There are a few good points in the book; the potential role of anthrax, the importance of not judging everything from our perspective, some of the insights into the individuals mentioned - but overall I'm afraid the professor, emeritus or not, gets an "F" for this piece of work.

Shocking.......2007-01-16

I read this book because my friend loved it. I have to say I was shocked that someone with Norman Cantor's credentials could publish such a sloppy, rambling book. It was more of a stream of concious essay than a rigorous (or even non-rigorous) examination) of the plague. Fortunately, it was a quick read because of repetition, large type, and lack of meaningful content. What made it worse was Cantor's arrogant notes in his critical biography at the end of his book: for example, on Jean-Noel Braben's "Les Hommes et la Peste" - "verbose, unfocused" , on Robert Gattfried - "The text could have been better." and Devid Herlihy - "The last two chapters of Herlihy's book are puff pieces of speculative nature [...] and are of modest value." It's one thing to write a bad book, but does Cantor have to trash other scholars on top of it? Not to mention that Cantor's book suffers from the same faults Cantor accuses other authors of. Shocking. I do not recommend this book. Rambling, repetetive, unfocused, speculative, and tangenical. Useless index and no footnotes.

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History

Average customer rating:

Walter Reed: American Hero
Could have been an interesting book
Guinea Pig #1
yellow fever book review
Memphis & Mosquitoes

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, the Epidemic that Shaped Our History
Molly Caldwell Crosby
Manufacturer: Berkley Hardcover
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Thunderstruck

ASIN: 0425212025

Book Description

The American Plague delves into America's not-so-distant past to recount one of the greatest epidemics of our time. It tells the story of the yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee-one that would cost more lives than the Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake and Johnstown flood combined-and, it is a narrative journey into Cuba and West Africa, where a handful of doctors would change medical history.

Yellow fever, a virus born of the slave trade, struck 500,000 Americans over two centuries touching every state from Texas to Massachusetts. It paralyzed governments, halted commerce, quarantined cities and altered the outcome of wars. It was not only the gruesome symptoms of the disease-much like those of Ebola today-but the long-term, crippling effect on a place and its people that made it such a dreaded disease and one that the federal government could not ignore.

In 1900, the United States sent three doctors led by Walter Reed to Cuba to discover how this disease was spread. Camped on sprawling farmland just outside of Havana, they launched one of history's most controversial human studies. Two of the doctors would be infected; one would die. Two-dozen men-veterans of the Spanish-American War-would volunteer to be test subjects.

Tragic and terrifying, The American Plague beautifully depicts the story of yellow fever, and its reign in this country. A story that, in the end, is as much about the nature of human beings as it is the nature of disease.

Customer Reviews:

Walter Reed: American Hero.......2007-06-10

Yellow fever, the West African slave trade's gift to the New World, rips through vulnerable populations like a hot knife through butter. In 1801, Napoleon brought 25,000 troops to put down a Haitian slave revolt; 23,000 died from the fever. (That's why he was in such a rush to ditch the Louisiana Territory, and Jefferson knew a bargain when he saw one.) In 1878, the mosquito-borne virus arrived in Memphis TN, and people started dropping like flies. Molly Caldwell Crosby does a great job describing the city's atmosphere before the fever and its descent into hell as Yellow Jack claims more and more victims.

There were heroic efforts by caregivers who didn't understand the disease but who nonetheless tended to the dead and dying. Crosby describes doctors, and nuns, who knew they'd eventually catch the fever but who worked as hard as they could, for as long as they could, to comfort the sick. Inspiring and scary! Yellow fever isn't the kind of fever that lets you lapse into delirium after a day of discomfort. It's a hemorrhagic fever, which means you bleed from body parts you didn't even know you had. The Brits called it "Black Vomit" because internal bleeding causes the sufferer to vomit blood.

Crosby then focuses on the ultimately successful efforts of Walter Reed and company, military doctors who set up camp in Cuba and doggedly pursued the cause of the disease. Some of these men deliberately infected themselves with the virus in order to prove that mosquito exposure was to blame, and that mosquito control would rein in the disease. Because of Reed and his team, and at least in the Western Hemisphere, we have managed to subdue the Fever.

Reed's campaign goes to show that the many of the greatest military victories occur not on the battlefield but in hospitals.

This is a well-written and interesting book, although I wish some of the chapters went into a bit more detail. Yellow fever isn't quite gone; in some parts of the world, it's still doing its dirty work. To understand this battle-hardened public enemy, read this book.

Could have been an interesting book.......2007-05-12

unfortunately she can't write very well. And unfortunately, I can't get past the first fifty pages because of that. I keep seeing what I warn my undergraduates about, using words they don't know the precise meaning of in an effort to impress with use of a large vocabulary. This woman supposedly has a graduate degree in nonfiction writing.

Guinea Pig #1.......2007-04-14

The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever
Þ By Molly Caldwell Crosby

This book starts as the history of a disease, but ends up being a book about people. Yellow Fever, carried by mosquitoes which entered the Western Hemisphere from ships carrying slaves, struck the city of Memphis with a vengeance in the late 19th century. The 1878 yellow fever epidemic cost 20,000 lives and $200 million in economic damages. The toll on human life in Memphis alone surpassed the Chicago fire, San Francisco earthquake, and Johnstown Flood combined.."

Ironically, the disease claimed more white victims than blacks, and more children than adults. Perhaps blacks developed some immunity to yellow fever. At any rate, the Federal government's response to the Memphis epidemic, much like FEMA's lame response to Katrina, was riddled with racism and politics.

President Rutherford B. Hayes will likely not be remembered for much¡K he was an ineffectual leader at best. But his administration did accomplish the creation of a National Board of Health, later to become the US Public Health Service. But it would take years¡Kand the efforts of courageous doctors like Walter Reed and Dr. Jesse Lazear, who infected himself with the virus and died a martyr to science, to isolate the cause and propose controls for the contagion. Along the way, the Spanish American War and the Caribbean, particularly Cuba, would be central to the story.

Molly Caldwell Crosby has done an excellent job with original sources including previously untapped journals and letters to tell this remarkable tale. Like other accounts of Influenza by John Barry (The Great Influenza) and the Black Death by John Kelly (The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death), her book belongs in any library of medical history.

****

yellow fever book review.......2007-03-09

Thhis is an excellent book on the Historyof Yellow Fever. I recommendit to anyone interested in the History of Medicine and Diseases.

Memphis & Mosquitoes .......2007-03-08

In 'The American Plague' Crosby illuminates a yellow fever epidemic in compelling fashion. The characters, including the mosquitoes, are given time to breathe and come to life. For a non-academic historical analysis this is a pretty good effort, particularly with regard to the research on Memphis. If you want to fill in the historical gaps, in particular the jump from Memphis to Cuba, supplement this fine bit of descriptive writing with Margaret Humphreys "Yellow Fever and the South." In the meantime, sit back and allow Crosby to transport you to a time and place of unimaginable circumstance.

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance

Average customer rating:

Extraordinary
One of the Four Horsemen
Superb research
BUREAUCRATIC BUNGLING AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Awesome Book!

The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
Laurie Garrett
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140250913

Amazon.com

Where's your next disease coming from? From anywhere in the world--from overflowing sewage in Cairo, from a war zone in Rwanda, from an energy-efficient office building in California, from a pig farm in China or North Carolina. "Preparedness demands understanding," writes Pulitzer-winning journalist Laurie Garrett, and in this precursor to Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health, she shows a clear understanding of the patterns lying beneath the new diseases in the headlines (AIDS, Lyme) and the old ones resurgent (tuberculosis, cholera). As the human population explodes, ecologies collapse and simplify, and disease organisms move into the gaps. As globalization continues, diseases can move from one country to another as fast as an airplane can fly.

While the human race battles itself ... the advantage moves to the microbes' court. They are our predators and they will be victorious if we, Homo sapiens, do not learn how to live in a rational global village that affords the microbes few opportunities.

Her picture is not entirely bleak. Epidemics grow when a disease outbreak is amplified--by contaminated water supplies, by shared needles, by recirculated air, by prostitution. And controlling the amplifiers of disease is within our power; it's a matter of money, people, and will. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Customer Reviews:

Extraordinary.......2007-03-31

After finishing this book you will never read a newspaper the same way again. I am amazed, and a little scared, at how much of what Laurie Garrett wrote in 1995 has come to pass in 2007. Her story about the "disease cowboys" who track the causes of unexplained epidemics in the remote corners of the world is both absorbing and eye-opening. And it has helped me to see disturbing trends in current news stories that I would have missed had I not read The Coming Plague.

When it first appeared, I avoided this book because it seemed depressing and alarmist. In the years since I have had occasion to work on some international communications projects and in the process came to be interested in global public health. Once that happened, reading Garrett's book was essential. She is one of the most informed individuals writing on global public health in the US today.

Amazingly, although the material is sobering and sometimes truly scary, the book is not in the least depressing. It often reads like an adventure story. If you like detective puzzles, you'll be drawn into Garrett's tales of Ebola turning up in Reston, Virginia, and Marburg virus being unwittingly spread by do-gooder missionaries in the Congo.

Irony abounds. It turns out that much of the good we thought we were doing in the developing world was exactly the wrong thing. Garrett relates that many development projects and purported medical "advances" served to promote the evolution of drug resistant bacteria and viruses, while also raising wildly unrealistic expectations for the eradication of disease among the public and the medical establishment. The results are the return of diseases we thought were gone for good, such as TB and -- get this -- bubonic plague, and they are even harder to treat this time around because the microbes are resistent to many antibiotics and drug therapies.

Don't be daunted by the 700+ pages of this book. It is a great read and definitely worth the time you will invest in educating yourself about the the impact of human beings and our technological development on the ecology of microbial environments. I recommend The Coming Plague most highly.

One of the Four Horsemen.......2006-08-30

I read this book when it first came out and lost it when a friend didn't return it. This a fascinating book and since it was first published SARS and Bird Flu has entered our world. If you are prone to panic attacks or nightmares don't read this book because the author did a fantastic job at research and has revealed our future and the diseases that will alter it.

Superb research.......2006-08-07

This book is superb for a number of reasons but the meticulous research behind it really stands out. There is not an idea or suggested proposition that is not referenced to one - and sometimes - mulitple sources. The tentive conclusions that are laid out are suggested only after exhaustive research and tightly logical arguments.

It is not just the research and the logic, however, that makes this book so good. The book is well written and conveys the difficult subject matter of emerging, infectious diseases in a highly readable but detailed and informative matter.

The book is also laid out in a very logical fashion. In different chapters it covers everything from the etiology of new diseases to methods of transmission to social and cultural factors involved in their spread to the drama of in-field investigation of new and fiercely lethal pathogens.

The book also explores the most recent research on the evolution of new diseases, with discoveries that may portend revolutions in the understanding the natural world.

In short, this is an indespensible work for anyone wishing to understand the emergence of new diseases and cutting edge science in the modern world.

BUREAUCRATIC BUNGLING AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.......2006-04-23

I began to read this book with hope it would be a good one. I figured it might cover the science of a new epidemic, or its social consequences. Or perhaps it would focus on historical plagues, giving us a glimpse of what the future has in store. Different diseases could be compared and contrasted.

The author however, chose none of these approaches. She produced instead a book that was filled mostly with accounts of bureaucratic incompetence, political short sightedness, and conservative religion, permeated with a tone of whiny political correctness that is most irratating. The last third of the book is taken up with attacks on the Reagan administration and conservative Christians for their approach to AIDS policy. If the reader wants this type of book, then by all means put 'The Coming Plague' on your reading list. I would suggest looking at other publications.

Of course, to be fair, at over 600 pages, there is a lot in this book, and some of it is quite good. Early chapters on Ebola and Legionaires disease are interesting, and keep the reader going. Too bad Garrett turned the second portion into a political sermon.

Awesome Book!.......2006-01-22

This book is a very long read, but the details and the descriptions make it unbelievably entertaining and educational.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in the field of microbiology or just someone who is plain curious about learning about disease outbreaks, the people who fight them and what the future holds in store for us in regards to different diseases.

A very in-depth book, one of the best I've read in a long time, the author put this together very well and it is a book that anyone could get into, just plain outstanding!

Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues

Average customer rating:

careless errors, mediocre conclusion
Medical-anthropological approach to HIV & TB illuminates roles of inequality and poverty in spread of disease
Wonderful etiological analysis, but unfounded conclusions.
Shining a Light
Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease

Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues
Paul Farmer
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520229134

Book Description

Paul Farmer has battled AIDS in rural Haiti and deadly strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the slums of Peru. A physician-anthropologist with more than fifteen years in the field, Farmer writes from the front lines of the war against these modern plagues and shows why, even more than those of history, they target the poor. This "peculiarly modern inequality" that permeates AIDS, TB, malaria, and typhoid in the modern world, and that feeds emerging (or re-emerging) infectious diseases such as Ebola and cholera, is laid bare in Farmer's harrowing stories of sickness and suffering.
Challenging the accepted methodologies of epidemiology and international health, he points out that most current explanatory strategies, from "cost-effectiveness" to patient "noncompliance," inevitably lead to blaming the victims. In reality, larger forces, global as well as local, determine why some people are sick and others are shielded from risk. Yet this moving account is far from a hopeless inventory of insoluble problems. Farmer writes of what can be done in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, by physicians determined to treat those in need. Infections and Inequalities weds meticulous scholarship with a passion for solutions--remedies for the plagues of the poor and the social maladies that have sustained them.

Customer Reviews:

careless errors, mediocre conclusion.......2006-06-15

By claiming "social reform," Farmer contradicts his stance as an American citizen: Haiti has no money to support its own citizens, that's why the US and others are doing Haiti's job. But, the US has to care for its own citizens as well therefore has to first work on its own AIDS patients within its boundary. If the US does that as its social reform, Haiti instantly dries up.

Irritating mistakes somehow got through inspection: PAligre Dam? PEligre? (P. 174) PuertO Plata? PueltA? (P. 119)

Medical-anthropological approach to HIV & TB illuminates roles of inequality and poverty in spread of disease.......2005-07-11

Farmer, a physician-anthropologist and activist, examines both the way that poverty and inequality result in the spread of HIV and TB today and the flawed justifications for inequitable access to treatment. His ethnographic analysis provides a powerful complement to standard epidemiological work, and this treatise on the danger as well as the immorality of inequity in medical care is largely convincing.

Farmer illustrates several broad themes effectively with case studies from Haiti and Peru. One is the idea that most studies overemphasize individual agency, failing to recognize serious "structural" factors, such as the pressure that extreme poverty exerts on people to engage in unhealthy behaviors and the problems introduced by economic inequality. (One example of the latter is that in unequal countries like Peru, second-line TB drugs are available because of demand by the rich, so doctors also prescribe them to the poor who can only afford them intermittently, which generates drug-resistant strains of the disease.) Another theme is that people in rich nations tend to place heavy weight on "strange" cultural beliefs and customs in explaining high disease prevalence, whereas actual epidemiological research tends to show that these factors carry little weight relative to poverty-related factors. While he uses AIDS in Haiti to illustrate this tendency, it applies perfectly to popular Western conceptions of AIDS in Africa: the popular media tend to emphasize cultural practices such as wife inheritance and a strong sex drive, whereas epidemiological research fails to support a major role for these.

A third theme, which Farmer often trumpets but not as convincingly, is that many of the trade-offs voiced by policymakers are ultimately false. One example is the question of whether to treat tuberculosis with drugs or prevent it (e.g., by investing in economic development). He then uses the success of his clinic in Haiti as an example of both treating and preventing TB. The ultimate argument is that the wealthy have no right to withhold their wealth from the poor. However, he gives us no clear sense of how the resources to generalize this to the world at large should be marshaled. While the trade-off may be philosophically false, the practical application is unclear.

But even without a plan of action, Farmer illuminates key problems in the analysis of infectious disease spread and makes a convincing plea to share the wealth (and the technology).

Wonderful etiological analysis, but unfounded conclusions. .......2004-07-24

Anyone in the public health arena has heard (or even read) of Paul Farmer. The Harvard MD/PhD (Anthropolgy) is indeed a passionate and competant professional who has fresh drive and leads a commendable life in service to humanity. This book seems to be his most popular work (at least on campus of major public health colleges) and it deserves attention and analysis.

Farmer gives systematic treatment of HIV and TB etiology and prevalence in the US and Haiti. More importantly, how those diseases affect the poor in inequitable ways. Peppered with intimate anecdotes and cutting analysis, the book brings hard ideas with the immediacy of the individual plight. He debunks myth of AIDS early history and establishes perspetive for the disease to be viewed/studied in light of the poor and the strucutral violence that (he deems) causes the propensity of the disease in the lower levels of society. He offers solutions and pleas for attention to these 'new plagues' so that the effects can be mitigated for the sake of all humanity.

There are some issues with that perspective. Of course every author brings inherent bias to the writing (either intentional or not), but Farmer makes no apology for his worldview and dismisses opinions of others who are even within the sientific community as he. John Stuart Mill (in "On Liberty") would say that such an attitude is likened to assuming infallibility (which Farmer more or less accuses the attitude of the 'rich' toward the modern plagues). His neo-Marxist tendency completely undermines the state of the world and he therefore addresses his problems from a "the way it should be" approach. That is his prerogative, but taking such an attitude means that his ideas will remain just that: ideas. His lack of pragmatism borders a silent taint of militarism and that approach rarely attracts policy makers, even those on the left.

Farmer assumes that a preponderence of evidence precludes a serious analysis of personal aganecy. No one would argue the conflict of structural violence and the inherent effects on personal agency. Yet, the fact remains that it does exist and it at least needs to be addressed in a thorough matter in order to be a fair treatment of the subject matter.

Furthermore, he needed to address the distal factors (i.e etiology and biology of the diseases) with the proximate (i.e. socio-econimics, etc...) for the book to be of more interest to the lay person. Despite my reservations, it is still a great book to get the reader "out of the box" and see AIDS and TB with the urgency it deserves. Yet, this type of book needs to be in the hands of the lay, and this recommendation would help.

Lastly, Farmer claims on several occasions a foundation of political economy in the analysis of his subject. He is a physician and anthropologist, and without the concurrent opinions of a political-economist to back up his claims, the ideas therein are weak at best. His political-economic opinions may be in line with greats like Marx and Henry George, but he cannot assume the validity of his assumptions just by telling the readership he his resting on such evidence. Several other leading political-economic ideas stand in direct opposition to his conclusions of goverment fixing all health problems to his liking.

All in all, it is hard not to be moved by Farmer's compelling treatment of such horrendous plagues on humanikind. Yet, passion does not always equal pragmatic and working solutions. Therefore, his work will hopefully inspire those who can take his passion to offer clear and viable solutions in the war on these plagues.

Michael Jewell, MPH

Shining a Light.......2004-01-02

Dr. Farmer sums up what you can hear in his lectures (he is an amazing speaker), read in journals, and hear in his interviews: The "modern day plagues" result directly from Structural Violence. I read this book for my culture and health class and could not put it down. He writes with an eloquence unheard of in most anthropologists while at the same time with the passion of a deeply concerned physician. Although in some points the book can get repetitive (as case studies overlap) it is a spectacular, enlightening read that I would recommend to anyone, particularly potential (and current) medical anthropologists.

Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease.......2000-06-08

Finally Dr. Farmer couples his lucid historical, political and economic analyses of the conditions that put the poor at risk for bad health outcomes, with a plainly indignant calling out of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations to make honest efforts to understand and remedy conditions which would never be tolerated among the well off in Western nations. In his goundbreaking, earlier books, "AIDS and Accusations," and "The Uses of Haiti," Dr. Farmer matter of factly discusses the global and local structural conditions and misrepresentations which led to the spread of disease and persistent, dismal health conditions in Haiti. In "Infections and Inequality," Dr. Farmer adds moral overtones to incisive, sociopolitical analysis and his characteristic accounts of individuals suffering from disease. The book consequently provides a powerful reflection from a man who has worked in some of the world's poorest regions on what the benefits of medical technology mean for people who have not traditionally had access to them. A powerful, informative read that clearly reflects the years of experience of a physician who has wrestled with the global responsibility of caring for the those who are worst off. An obligatory read for anyone even thinking of working for the impoverished of the world.

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History

Average customer rating:

Terrifying history
It was influenza, only influenza...
Well Research and Developed, If in need of Some Editing
Great Book
Two Books in One

The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague In History
John M. Barry
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Bird Flu Preparedness Planner

ASIN: 0670894737
Release Date: 2004-02-05

Book Description

No disease the world has ever known even remotely resembles the great influenza epidemic of 1918. Presumed to have begun when sick farm animals infected soldiers in Kansas, spreading and mutating into a lethal strain as troops carried it to Europe, it exploded across the world with unequaled ferocity and speed. It killed more people in twenty weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty years; it killed more people in a year than the plagues of the Middle Ages killed in a century. Victims bled from the ears and nose, turned blue from lack of oxygen, suffered aches that felt like bones being broken, and died. In the United States, where bodies were stacked without coffins on trucks, nearly seven times as many people died of influenza as in the First World War.

In his powerful new book, award-winning historian John M. Barry unfolds a tale that is magisterial in its breadth and in the depth of its research, and spellbinding as he weaves multiple narrative strands together. In this first great collision between science and epidemic disease, even as society approached collapse, a handful of heroic researchers stepped forward, risking their lives to confront this strange disease. Titans like William Welch at the newly formed Johns Hopkins Medical School and colleagues at Rockefeller University and others from around the country revolutionized American science and public health, and their work in this crisis led to crucial discoveries that we are still using and learning from today.

The Washington Post's Jonathan Yardley said Barry's last book can “change the way we think.” The Great Influenza may also change the way we see the world.

Customer Reviews:

Terrifying history.......2007-06-19

This provides and exceptional history of the Influenza Epidemic of 1919 (The "Spanish Flu"). It is written for the layman. It is not a short review or 'overview'. It is a thorough, in-depth presentation of the events spanning about 2 years. Yet the narration still flows smoothly, keeping the reader interested by interspersing personal stories within the basic information structure, providing a much needed human, personal face to the events.

All aspects of the disease are covered: the changes in medicine as a science, the social developments due to the times and the on-going World War I, the government's (in)ability to manage things. The terrifying part was the ease with which the disease went from a national epidemic to a world-wide pandemic in such a short time.

This history follows a group of people who had the greatest impact on public health in the United States in the early 20th Century. Reading the many stories and anectdoes about these people leaves one hoping that the current cadre of physicians and public health professionals will be up to the task to cope with the next world-wide disease. This demonstrates the fact that "globalization" is not a new event and, more relevantly, one could argue that this period in history, the combination of world war one and the concurrent Influenza pandemic was the first step towards globalization - it was the entire world's participation in the war which led to the spread of the disease, forcing us to realize today that our public health has long been interdependent upon other countries.

It was after reading this, when I was recommending it to my mother, that I discovered both of her grandfathers died from this epidemic. The tragedy was my calculation that her parents (my grandparents) had been 12 years old when they lost their fathers amidst a terrifying time of uncertainty.

A must read for anyone interested in either Public Health and its history or just general early 20th Century history.

It was influenza, only influenza..........2007-06-06

Sure it was. Just a tiny outbreak of the flu in rural Kansas. Who was to know that this new strain of influenza, which struck brutally and violently and had no mercy, would lead to a pandemic that would haunt the world to this very day?

Barry makes a good point in this book: we talk about the horrors that people inflict upon each other, but not the horrors that nature inflicts upon us. The 1918 pandemic is often forgotten, when placed against the background of World War I. Yet it remains a haunting two-year period, a time of death and discovery, that would affect everything from daily life to world politics. Barry does a superb job of emphasizing both the glories and tragedies that arose from this period; the personal suffering of those fighting the disease; the world-wide impact this ever-evolving virus had on the history of the world. "The Great Influenza" starts with a summation of the rise of American medicine, and ends with a cautionary tale ripped from the latest headlines. This is a must read for everyone interested in medicine, in tragedy, or for those who simply love an engrossing true story.

Well Research and Developed, If in need of Some Editing.......2007-06-04

John M Barry (JMB) has done a fine job of taking this story and delivering a linear discussion of how it spread and the men and woman who fought to try to stop it. Nothing that Man did seemed to have had any effect and in the end, it stopped itself. What Barry has done is to explain (sometimes in painstaking detail) what Influenza is, how it reproduces, how it attacks the body and how the body fights back, and what science and medicine did to try to mitigate the effects.

Like any good story, from time to time JMB goes into the backstory of the scientists and their organizations, how they came about and what they were trying to do before, during and after the pandemic. Mostly we are witnesses to the failures of medical science to make a dent in the morbidity and mortality rates (in the end the only way to prevent an outbreak was to quarantine the areas where people were healthy, and keep everyone else out).

What JMB brings to light is the swiftness in which the epidemic killed those who were the healthiest of the population over a twelve week period. The greatest number of deaths occurred among those 25 to 40, who should have had the easiest time fighting off the disease, while those over 60 (who should have been the weakest) had the lowest mortality rates. At its' worst, the people with the strongest immune response to the disease found that their systems overreacted to the disease and ended up killing the hosts (individual people).

My only criticism of the book is that many times JMB repeats himself or overstates an issue by citing multiple sources to the point of ad nauseum. He seems to suffer from "Mitchneritis", by which I mean that every piece of information that he discovered in his research had to end up in the book (in addition the notes fill almost 50 pages, and the bibliography is over twenty).

All in all though, I found the biographical information on the scientists, their organizations and the governmental response to be of high quality and interesting.

Great Book .......2007-05-18

It always shocks me to see the flu of 1918-19 as a minor footnote to history. This is the flue that managed to kill more people in the world in 20 weeks then the AIDS virus has killed in 20 years. At times I'll admit it can be a bit too technical but there is a method to the madness of the detail. Barry is not exaggerating at all here; if you think we've got problems with infectious disease in the world today? Avian Flu? SARS? Big problems right? Buddy you don't even know the half of it. Healthy people knelled over dead sometimes in a week and sometimes in matter of hours. It also brought the economy of the United States to a standstill. Everyone needs to read this excellent book

Two Books in One.......2007-04-26

The things I learned reading The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Plague in History I can only begin to relate. It was such a startling book, but it was two books truth be told. Two books written in two different ways.

The first book was a history of the stark, remarkable transformation of medicine and science in America from backwoods charlatanry to modern laboratory investigation in less than a generation. The second book was a page-turning drama about how the Spanish Flu traversed the nation and the world leaving nothing unaffected in its wake. The thread that ties these two stories together was that the flu was the first real test of a modern scientific establishment.

As a chronicle of the transformation of medicine from pigheaded instinct to deliberate science, the book succeeded by following the key figures in that movement. In no small part, the founding of Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Center were the defining organizations that changed America from a backwater to a leader nearly overnight. But this chronicle isn't the book's strength and the founders of the scientific establishment in America weren't key players in what was to come. Sure, they trained the scientists and clinicians that were to become center to the dangerous plague, but the true story was the flu.

And devastating it was. In a year, and in three waves, it killed more people than anything else before or since. Upwards of 100 Million by modern estimates. Between 2.5% and 5% of the human population on planet earth. It was a ruthless, relentless killer, and it changed the nature of human interaction in its wake. It killed so brutally that people literally coughed their ribs to splinters. It ravaged the immune system and the circulatory system so thoroughly that people were black before death. It preyed on humanity so efficiently that diagnosis in many cases wasn't even possible until decay started. People would board a train healthy and die before their destination, not in isolated cases but by the dozens, and the hundreds.

In it there's an obvious lesson - it could happen again. It could happen again because our health care system, while more advanced, is poorly prepared to handle millions of sick at once. We've developed a Just-in-Time system with inadequate bed capacity and poorly stocked serum reserves with almost no way to produce needed medications in quantity in the time allowed by a ravaging worldwide disease. Flu deaths are up every year, not down. Illness is more potent, not less. Medicine is playing a bluffing game and eventually Mother Nature is going to call that bluff.

It's a good two books, but the one about flu is far superior to the history of medical science.

- CV Rick

Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate

Average customer rating:

Climate change clarified
Turning back the clock on the Anthropocene.
How to squeeze a theory that doesn't fit into an old shoe
A great introduction and overview with ample speculation
VERY small print, somewhat mis-titled

Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate
William F. Ruddiman
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691121648

Book Description

The impact on climate from 200 years of industrial development is an everyday fact of life, but did humankind's active involvement in climate change really begin with the industrial revolution, as commonly believed? William Ruddiman's provocative new book argues that humans have actually been changing the climate for some 8,000 years--as a result of the earlier discovery of agriculture.

The "Ruddiman Hypothesis" will spark intense debate. We learn that the impact of farming on greenhouse-gas levels, thousands of years before the industrial revolution, kept our planet notably warmer than if natural climate cycles had prevailed--quite possibly forestalling a new ice age.

Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum is the first book to trace the full historical sweep of human interaction with Earth's climate. Ruddiman takes us through three broad stages of human history: when nature was in control; when humans began to take control, discovering agriculture and affecting climate through carbon dioxide and methane emissions; and, finally, the more recent human impact on climate change. Along the way he raises the fascinating possibility that plagues, by depleting human populations, also affected reforestation and thus climate--as suggested by dips in greenhouse gases when major pandemics have occurred. The book concludes by looking to the future and critiquing the impact of special interest money on the global warming debate.

Eminently readable and far-reaching in argument, Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum shows us that even as civilization developed, we were already changing the climate in which we lived.

Customer Reviews:

Climate change clarified.......2007-04-12

In a fast 194 pages, with 41 clear illustrations, Professor William Ruddiman gives us the benefit of his many years of experience in Environmental Sciences studying the onset and causes of climatic changes in general, and in particular with regard to the basis of global warming. His presentation is excellent and obviously refined by years of teaching and investigation about this subject matter. You should read this book if you are interested in the evidence about our changing climate, without a sensational biased twist. If you are interested in any of the following questions, you will enjoy learning from this book: What are the influences on our climate created by the earth's wobbling as it travels through its elliptical orbit around the sun? When did global warming really begin? What were the influences of human activities such as early agriculture, wars, plagues, and recent industrialization? How do the oceans and atmosphere interact to produce or buffer climate changes? What are the likely effects of melting sea ice on our homes by the shores? What prices are we going to have to accept in order to clean up our mess? Obviously there has been much said in sound bites currently in the media, but the discussion can be greatly improved by understanding the clear and sensible approach of Dr. Ruddiman.

Turning back the clock on the Anthropocene. .......2007-03-31

When we talk about anthropogenic global warming, we tend to be referring to the dramatic rise in greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide since the beginning of the Industrial era, some two hundred years ago. Scientists often refer to this apparent change in the atmosphere as the "Anthropocene," the beginning of significant human impact on the earth.

But what if the Anthropocene started not with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, but some eight thousand years ago?

William Ruddiman, a senior climatologist at the University of Virginia, makes that very argument in his book Plows, Plagues, & Petroleum. Looking back at past paleoclimate data and computer models, Ruddiman noticed that at around 8,000 years ago, carbon dioxide and methane levels in the atmosphere should have gone down in association with changes in the Earth's orbital patterns known as Milankovitch Cycles. Instead, he noticed that concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane actually increase, albeit slightly and gradually. Finding no plausible hypothesis for this in his knowledge of earth science, Ruddiman turned to archaeology for clues, and found that the rises in carbon dioxide and methane corresponded with the beginnings of deforestation and landscape burning for agriculture, and the formation of Asia's first rice paddies. Even this relatively small change in human land use (compared to today's scale) was enough to start a long-term trend in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, and possibly contributed to the prevention of the next ice age, which he argues is overdue.

It's a compelling argument, and one that Ruddiman describes in an accessible format without being thin on the scientific details. But Ruddiman doesn't stop there; he continues to examine the seemingly anomalous blips in the carbon dioxide record up through the modern age, in an attempt to explain the unusual (but slight) drops in the record that have taken place in the last thousand years or so. Some such blips, Ruddiman argues, follow major pandemics in human history, such as the Bubonic Plague. Following major decreases in human population, large areas of farmland would return to forested conditions and less wood and other fuels would have been burned, which may have accounted for the decrease in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Ruddiman proposes that this drop may have been responsible for the Little Ice Age.

These thought exercises, backed up with computer models and ice core records, are extremely compelling. Ruddiman of course acknowledges that correlation is not causation; that is, simply because two things happen at the same time, doesn't mean that one caused the other to happen. My only significant criticism is with the title; "control" implies a deliberate attempt on the part of humans to forestall the next ice age, which certainly wasn't the case. Otherwise, the book is concise and well-written, and has an excellent reference list (a feature often neglected by popular science writers).

Ruddiman's ideas have caused a lot of healthy debate and inquiry among climate scientists, and have caused a number of people to rethink the assumption that human impact was negligible until the Industrial era. Researchers will continue to test these hypotheses (Ruddiman and colleagues continue to work on the problem, and are now also looking at the impact of the domestication of livestock animals), and while the jury is out on the "Early Anthropocene" hypothesis, in the meantime the ideas (and the book) make for good thinking and great conversation.

~Jacquelyn Gill

How to squeeze a theory that doesn't fit into an old shoe.......2007-03-22

It is regrettable that Ruddiman went unchallenged for so many years at the University of Virginia since I suspect that he might have left the door open for alternative ideas than the conclusions he erroneously came to in writing this book. While Ruddiman has been advancing his theories about mankind's impact on the climate for many years, his conclusions have now been shown to be yet more bad science in a field where politics, money and media hype have ruled for many years.
There are many examples of this in this book, which does not include references to the most recent findings of ice cores which show that the earth's atmosphere has had concentrations of CO2 nearly 20 times today's levels, long before mankind climbed out of the trees. Ruddiman suggests that all of a sudden mankind's short time of walking upright and doing things such as farming, land clearing, building cars, etc. has had a greater impact on the climate than other, far more natural forces have had over the billions of years that the earth has been in existence. While he has a lot of charts and graphs, and he has a lot of history in this rarified field, he really comes to some very suspect conclusions using some very selective observations. And of course the most recent findings regarding the relationship of CO2 and warming, totally debunk the theories and conclusions that Ruddiman espouses about the causes of global warming. ( Increases in CO2 are a lagging indicator of warming, not the cause.)

Is the earth warming up? It looks like it is again, just as it has done hundreds of times in the past, before it cooled down only to heat up again. And no matter how many trillions of dollars worth of "carbon credits" that the signators of the Kyoto Treaty exchange amongst themselves, or Al Gore buys from some pea