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Summary: One of the best
Review: This is one of a very tiny number of books which I have bought in bulk and distributed to friends and colleagues. Although the prose style can be unnecessarily turgid and academic and will win no prizes, the ideas are so stimulating intellectually that one gradually ceases to notice the style. McNeill's central thesis, both original and plausible, allows one to review the entire history of civilization in a new light and to make testable and almost always correct predictions. Few books have the ability to so change one's view of history. I first read this book many years ago and it has held up well. Read and ponder. It may change your world view.
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Summary: Will change the way you look at the world
Review: This is one of those handful of books that will change the way you look at our world. History will never seem quite the same when you finish.
Several earlier reviewers have done a great job of summarizing and analyzing the book. It is unfortunate that this book was given as a high school assignment, and then the students were asked to review it on Amazon. Is it any wonder they gave it 2 or 3 stars, and said it was difficult to understand? Most 15-year-olds do not have the background to fully appreciate this type of work, and unfortunately their reviews skew the book's rating.
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Summary: A very good introduction
Review: Upon my first reading of it, I realized what a novel approach to understanding history McNeill was proposing - that disease as much as any other event can be a major influence in historical change. It became the book that sparked an interest in the history of disease and epidemics that persists to this day.While the scope of the book seems broad, McNeill focuses on three specific epidemics )the Plague of Athens, the Bubonic Plague of the 1340's and the introduction of smallpox to the Americas) and the subsequent impact of these epidemics on history. Due to its out-of-the-ordinary approach, this book is really geared towards the serious history-junkie ot the epidemiologically minded.
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Summary: An enlightening look at history as a microbiologist
Review: What I enjoyed most was the way I learned about our planets history from his "microparasitic" definition. My history classes always viewed life and events from a political and military point of view. This does not mean that they are not important - McNeill defines this as "macroparasitism". To see all of our history in this new light taught me a lot about our/my past. I always wondered how the Maya and others disappeared so quickly (and easily!?) To learn about where different foods originated from was also most interesting.
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Summary: New perspective on history
Review: When you go through school, the history books pretty much focus on "this group conquered this group who conquered this group" and it leaves with the impression that it was all guns and steel. Plagues and Peoples reveals just how huge an impact disease has had on the outcome of human history, and why some populations were more susceptible to outside infection than others.
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Summary: Fascinating look at the historic impact of epidemic disease.
Review: William H. McNeill's book "Plagues and Peoples" provides a thorough and original look at how epidemic diseases have shaped the course of human history. McNeill begins by describing the basic patterns of disease spread and how epidemics generally affect human population and activity, including war, religion, colonization, trade, politics, economics, etc. In a community previously unexposed to a particular disease, the effects can be devastating, killing off vast numbers. In communities where a disease has been encountered before, however, individuals who have been exposed usually have developed some level of resistance and either do not contract the disease again or, if they do, the symptoms tend to be far less severe.
In a community where a particular disease has established itself and attained endemic status (i.e. it is constantly present in the population, to some degree, as opposed to an epidemic that strikes and then disappears after a time), it becomes primarily a childhood disease, due to the fact that young children are usually the only ones in the population who have not been exposed and have therefore not had a chance to build any resistance. Examples of diseases that have attained such an endemic status include chicken pox, measles, and mumps, among others. McNeill also makes an interesting point that, for a disease to become endemic in a community, the population thereof must remain above a certain threshold number, below which there would not be a large enough body of unexposed, susceptible individuals to allow the continual perpetuation of the disease. For example, "the critical threshold below which [measles] cannot survive falls between 300,000 and 400,000 persons" (pg. 78).
One of the themes McNeill addresses throughout the book is the balance between what he calls "microparasitism" and "macroparasitism." The former refers to the parasitism of humans by infectious organisms such as bacteria, viruses, worms, etc. The latter is a term the author has applied to the way in which humans "parasitize" other humans via war, colonization, tax systems, etc. The book draws many parallels between the two, making it apparent that humans can have much the same effect on their own kind as do microscopic invaders.
McNeill works in chronological order from ancient times to modern day, describing different outbreaks of various diseases and the impacts they have had. There is little information on most of the older epidemics, simply due to the fact that few, if any, clearly written records exist from times long ago. In addition, it is often impossible to identify an ancient disease with a modern one based on available records. Though the term "plague" is assigned to many of the epidemics described in the Bible, it is unlikely that these outbreaks were instances of the bubonic plague that popularized the term centuries later. Once record-keeping became standard procedure, however, information was much easier to obtain.
A large section of the book is devoted to discussion of the infamous Black Death that first ravaged Europe from 1346-1350, and continued to return for repeat epidemics for several centuries afterward. McNeill explores the origins of this plague in other parts of the world and means by which the causal bacillus was transferred to European countries. Other diseases discussed include smallpox, chicken pox / shingles, measles, mumps, cholera, typhus, malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis, schistosomiasis, leprosy, yaws, syphilis, poliomyelitis, and various parasites such as blood flukes. "Plagues and Peoples" was originally published in 1976, so the main body of the text does not include information on AIDS, but the updated 1998 edition has an added preface that briefly discusses the recent impact of this disease.
The last section of the book is devoted to the impacts modern medicine, since 1700, has had on the age-old patterns of epidemic infection. The two practices which seem to have had the greatest impact are quarantine and inoculation. Once people began to understand the nature of contagion between human beings (opposed to the previous "miasma" theory that bad vapors from dead bodies caused infection), quarantine measures became at least partially effective in stemming the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis, sufferers of which were often sent off to sanatoriums. Inoculation, first put into widespread use to combat smallpox, allowed individuals to build up immunity by exposure to a small, non-lethal dose of a particular antigen.
Many of the conclusions McNeill draws from his examination of epidemic diseases are based largely on circumstantial evidence, due to the aforementioned lack of detailed documentation of early outbreaks, but they are all very logical and plausible, despite sometimes going against long-established ideas. All the hypotheses offered here are backed up by thorough research and clear cause-and-effect analysis based on the standard patterns epidemic infections tend to take. McNeill does not delve too deeply into the specific symptoms of each individual disease he covers, but rather spends his time discussing the broader, large-scale effects these epidemics had on human history. The book is fascinating, and is also very readable. Highly recommended to anyone interested in the history of disease.
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Summary: Great book for history and medical fanatics
Review: William McNeill's book, Plagues and Peoples, creates a new perspective on how epidemics throughout history has had dramatic effects on such areas as demographics, politics, and psychological. He brings about information that is unknown to an average person, such as that "among the organisms that infect monkeys and apes in the wild are fifteen to twenty2 species of malaria. Humankind normally supports only four kinds of malaria, but apes can be infected with human strains of malaria plasmodia..." (36) Obviously, the common man would not know that kind of knowledge; however, he lays this foundation in order to elaborate on more diseases throughout the book. McNeill wants the reader to learn that plagues haven't just come and gone, but they are still an everlasting threat on society and history as well. He brings forth little known epidemics that have plagued nations, such as the era of the "hungry forties," in which a parasite that was native to Peru established itself in Europe and destroyed the European potato crop. McNeill also includes information about the major plagues of history, which would not be found in an ordinary history book. One such example of this is that "a series of epidemics" (including the bubonic plague) "broke out in the coastal provinces of China, beginning in the year 762, when 'more than half the population of Shantung province died.'" (148) He brings about interesting parallels between two different cultures, one being between China and the Roman Empire. Among those parallels, it includes such topics as religious history, political history, and of course, epidemic history, which ties the east and west together. In order to back up such information, he provides solid evidence with the use of numerous resources He relied on 397 books in order to write his novel, Plagues and Peoples. He listed all of the books he used, by the chapter in which it was used in his book and he includes it in the book for 46 pages. He notes his extensive research throughout the book with the use of footnotes after given facts. He did use one type of graphic in order to enhance his work, which was a map that showed the spread of the Black Death in Europe in the 14th century. However, he also includes tables of various demographic figures throughout the novel and in the notes section. Mr. McNeill writes incredibly well, making the reader feel like he is directly talking to them. In his book, he asks questions that may be on the mind of the reader and then answers it and greatly elaborates on it. His evidence ranges from books such as The Conquest for Plague: A Study of the Evolution of Epidemiology by L. Fabian Hurst to the essay of "Trypanosomiasis in Prehistoric and Later Human Populations: A Tentative Reconstruction" by Frank L. Lambrecht. In the appendix of the book, he compiles a checklist of the epidemics in China from 243 B.C. to 1911 A.D., with the help of Joseph H. Cha. By the way he writes and researches this topic, it is clearly evident that he is entertained by his subject and hopes that this topic entertains its readers as well. The author really persuaded me on how the different plagues throughout time has impacted culture and overall, history. At some parts, he would bore me, especially with the hunter's history. It dragged on for nearly 20 pages, which seemed to be too long to describe man's way of obtaining food; however, overall, it was a good book. It was a book that needed to be written so that it could inform readers of how plagues and epidemics have had a pivotal role in changing the course of history dramatically. He chose to include AIDS as one of the epidemics that have had a dramatic influence on history. I was astonished as to the amount of information in this book. I learned fascinating facts, such as "the extraordinary variety of human parasites that exist in Africa suggests that Africa was the principal cradle for humankind, for nowhere else did the adjustment between human and nonhuman forms of life achieve anything life the same biological elaboration" (45) and that the phylloxera spread nearly destroyed vineyards in Europe during the late 19th century. Besides including the major epidemics throughout history, like the bubonic plague and AIDS, he includes all the epidemics that have occurred from prehistory until now. Before reading this book, I had never known that there was an influenza epidemic in 1918-1919. This is not like a history book where it only describes surface details; it goes in depth on all the epidemics that have happened in history and it keeps you wanting to read more to find out what other diseases have happened throughout history. This book is really interesting if you are into science and history or if you want to pursue a career in either of those fields. Some of the terminology that McNeill uses may be difficult to understand since it uses medical and biology terms. I would advise a future reader of this book to take this book slowly in order to fully comprehend the linguistics of the book. I would definitely recommend this book to people who want a new perspective on human history.
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