McNeill, William H. Plagues and People ISBN 13: 9780844664927

Plagues and People - Hardcover

9780844664927: Plagues and People
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
This book describes the dramatic impact of infectious diseases on the rise and fall of civilisations. Plague demoralized the Athenian army during the Peloponnesian war, and ravaged the Roman Empire. In the 16th century smallpox was the decisive agent that allowed Cortez with only 600 men to conquer the Aztec empire, whose subjects numbered millions. As recently as 1918-19 an epidemic of influenza claimed twenty-one million victims, and seemed to threaten civilization itself. Diseases such as syphilis, cholera, smallpox and malariahave been devastating to humanity for centuries. Now professor McNeill, through an accumulation of evidence, demonstrates the central role of pestilence in human affairs and the extent to which it has changed the course of history.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
William H. McNeill is one of America's senior historians. He was professor of history at the University of Chicago for forty years before retiring in 1987. In the course of his career, he has published more than twenty books, inlcuding The Rise of the West: A History of Human Community, which won the National Book Award in 1964; Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society Since 1000 A.D.; and Plagues and Peoples. Dr. McNeill was president of the American Historical Association in 1985. In 1996, he was the first non-European recipient of the Erasmus Prize, an annual award for exceptional contributions to European culture, society, and social science.
From the Inside Flap:
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.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherSmith (Peter),US
  • Publication date1992
  • ISBN 10 0844664928
  • ISBN 13 9780844664927
  • BindingHardcover
  • Rating

(No Available Copies)

Search Books:



Create a Want

If you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you!

Create a Want

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780385121224: Plagues and Peoples

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780385121224
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing..., 1977
Softcover

  • 9780385112567: Plagues and Peoples

    Anchor..., 1976
    Hardcover

  • 9780140551396: Plagues And Peoples

    Penguin, 1979
    Softcover

  • 9780631178804: Plagues And Peoples

    Blackwell, 1977
    Hardcover

  • 9780140233643: Plagues And Peoples

    Penguin, 1994
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace