Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Reader's Shelf


From Library Journal

Fright, Fever, Flu:  Absorbing but Scary Medical Histories




Plagues and Peoples
Plagues and Peoples
By McNeill, William H.
1977-10 - Anchor Books
9780385121224 Check Our Catalog

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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Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic
Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic
By Kolata, Gina
2001-01 - Touchstone Books
9780743203982 Check Our Catalog

The author examines the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 that killed an estimated 40 to 100 million people in the world, and delves into the mystery that still surrounds it. Kolata takes readers into the lab where scientists today are working with samples of the virus, and addresses the prospects for a recurrence of an equally lethal pandemic. …More


The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years
By Shah, Sonia
2011-06 - Picador USA
9780312573010 Check Our Catalog


In recent years, malaria has emerged as a cause celebre for voguish philanthropists. Bill Gates, Bono, and Laura Bush are only a few of the personalities who have opened their pocketbooks in hopes of eradicating the scourge. How does a parasitic disease that we've known how to prevent for more than a century still infect three hundred million people every year, killing nearly one million of them? In "The Fever"," " the journalist Sonia Shah sets out to answer this question, delivering a timely, inquisitive chronicle of the illness and its influence on human lives. "The Fever" captures the curiously fascinating, devastating history of this long-standing thorn in the side of humanity. …More


Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus
Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus
By Wasik, Bill
Author Murphy, Monica
2012-07 - Viking Books
9780670023738 Check Our Catalog

An engrossing and lively history of the fearsome and mythologized virus. In the tradition of "The Emperor of All Maladies" and "The Great Influenza," journalist Wasik and veterinarian Murphy chart the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. …More


The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai
By Tayman, John
2007-01 - Scribner Book Company
9780743233019 Check Our Catalog

In the bestselling tradition of "In the Heart of the Sea" comes the untold history of America's only leper colony--which exists even today--and the extraordinary people forced to create a community under horrific circumstances. …More


The End of Plagues: The Global Battle Against Infectious Disease
The End of Plagues: The Global Battle Against Infectious Disease
By Rhodes, John
2013-09 - Palgrave MacMillan
9781137278524 Check Our Catalog

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