Rating:
(8 reviews)
Author: Irwin W. Sherman
ISBN : 1555813569
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Format: PDF
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A fascinating examination of epidemic diseases within a historical context. • Describes the nature and evolution of diseases. • Explains how scientists discovered the causes of infectious diseases and outlines how controls were developed. • Examines the interrelationship between plagues and culture and details the ways this shaped the traditions and institutions of Western civilization. • Highlights current epidemics such as AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, West Nile virus, mad cow disease, and others. • Addresses the public’s curiosity with outbreaks and diseases of public health concern.
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- Paperback: 431 pages
- Publisher: ASM Press; 1 edition (January 20, 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1555813569
- ISBN-13: 978-1555813567
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 7.5 x 10.8 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
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This book languishes in some obscurity, published at a high price by a rather arcane scientific society. I hope some mass publisher has the sense to buy the rights and bring it out in paperback. It deserves the widest circulation.
The book is a survey of major diseases, their biology, their transmission, and their major historic effects. Irwin Sherman talks about disease in general, then about such famous historic crises as the Black Death in medieval Europe, then about major diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Much of the book covers fairly familiar ground, if you have read such well-known disease histories as William McNeill's PLAGUES AND PEOPLES. However, several things set this book apart. First, it's extremely accurate. Few know the biology better. The history has been carefully researched and updated. Controversial statements are flagged as such. Second, Sherman covers all the new plagues that have afflicted us in recent years. I think this is the first such general history to deal with hantavirus, mad cow disease, bird flu, and the rest. Third, the book is well written and reasonably well illustrated (I wish there had been more pictures).
Some minor limitations: Sherman is too quick to assume the Black Death was largely bubonic plague. This has been challenged, and the debate could have used more coverage. I wish, also, that a bit more had been done with some of the great recent disease-fighters. Sherman covers Koch, Pasteur, Semmelweisz, and the other classic names, but I wish he had mentioned some of the modern ones not covered in other books.
The Power of Plagues contains a fairly thorough assessment of the historical development of epidemiology. Irwin Sherman goes into considerable detail of not only the major epidemic events of very recent history (from a paleontologist's point of view), but he also provides some general background into the biological processes involved. Many times he tries and succeeds in creating an adventurous account of the historical search for a particular vector or pathological agent. For anyone interested in a general overview of disease and its development as well as an account of the development of man's responses to disease, this is a good book.
Although there are many good aspects to his accounts, his writing suffers from some very significant negative qualities. First of all, his underlying anti-white prejudice simmers below the surface. An example of this can be seen in the accounts of past incidences of historical human-use studies. When he describes studies that took place in Scandinavia upon test-subjects without their knowledge or consent, he seems almost as if there are no negative ethical considerations involved. However, when he recounts the tales of the major Syphilis study in the American South, which utilized for the most part Afro-Americans, he laments loud and long about the horrible atrocities of the white man. These snap-reaction judgments don't include consideration that many more people were unfairly affected by the Scandinavian study than the American South study, or any other such "inconsequential items" (in his opinion). For any readers that don't tend to include analysis of subtle aspects such as tone, this might not pose a problem for them.
The other main (and in my opinion, more important) drawback of this book lies in his historical narratives.
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