The History of the World in 100 Pandemics, Plagues and Epidemics
Pandemics are nothing new. The 100 events summarised here are not an exhaustive list, but they include all the best-known plagues in history plus accounts of several of the endemic diseases which were major killers in the past, such as tuberculosis.
The obvious drawback of such a list is that it becomes simply a list with no space to describe individual pandemics in detail or society’s response. Not that we have many details of most of the earlier pandemics or any clear idea of what the disease was. The usual response seems to have been to promise the deity a new temple or church if the plague abated. Also, the book seems to have been compiled rather hurriedly, perhaps to catch the moment, with some headings missing and some dates are wrong. However, this is still a mine of information on a topic which until recently was a niche interest.
