Plagues and Peoples
by William H. McNeill
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Book Summary Information
Author: William H. McNeillEdition: Paperback
Published: 1998-02
ISBN: 0385121229
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of Plagues and Peoples
Book Review: Foundational Study of Parasitism
Summary: 4 Stars
In this 1976 work, acclaimed historian William McNeill investigated the role of parasitism (both micro in the form of disease and macro in the form of rulers and governments) on the rise and fall of historical societies. To say that "Plagues and Peoples" was a success would be a monumental understatement as almost all subsequent discussions of the role of disease in history start from here. In discussing the way in which epidemics begin, run through a population and then may become a part of a series of non-lethal but persistent childhood diseases, McNeill arrives at a paradigm that fundamentally alters the way in which epidemiology is seen historically. In short, this work was and still is revolutionary.
The biggest drawback of the book is the style in which it is written. The text is written in the way in which a scholar might have communicated with interested colleagues outside of the typical discourse one might find in scholarly journals. As such, the language is somewhat geared towards the specialist and the text assumes the reader has at least a passing familiarity with the broader historical context of the societies the author is discussing. While this isn't as much of a problem for the discussions about epidemics affecting the west, there is a good bit of material about China, India, the Middle East and Africa (though less so in the last three). Also, the chapters are often rather long and span several thematic ideas which would likely have been separated into separate chapters had the book been written to more recent editorial guidelines. This makes the book a bit of tough sledding at times as it can tend to bog down with the sheer weight of the information being presented and a lack of a narrative thread at times.
For me, the most compelling discussion was the effect of the introduction of Old World diseases into the New World. The mortality statistics are stunning and offer a chilling prediction of what might happen if a disease to which there is little resistance is released into a modern urbanized setting.
I recommend this book to any student of history, epidemiology or sociology. Be prepared to push through some dense text but you will definitely be rewarded for your perseverance.
Summary of Plagues and Peoples
No small themes for historian William McNeill: he is a writer of big, sweeping books, from The Rise of the West to The History of the World. Plagues and Peoples considers the influence of infectious diseases on the course of history, and McNeill pays special attention to the Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries, which killed millions across Europe and Asia. (At one point, writes McNeill, 10,000 people in Constantinople alone were dying each day from the plague.) With the new crop of plagues and epidemics in our own time, McNeill's quiet assertion that "in any effort to understand what lies ahead the role of infectious disease cannot properly be left out of consideration" takes on new significance.Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the history of humankind. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter has been added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his new introduction to this updated editon.
Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening. "A brilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement" (Kirkus Reviews), it is essential reading, offering a new perspective on human history.
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