The Pandemic Century: One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria and Hubris - Hardcover

Honigsbaum, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1787381218 ISBN 13: 9781787381216

Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd, 2019

Synopsis

Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet, despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From pneumonic plague in LA and ‘parrot fever’ in Argentina to the more recent AIDS, SARS and Ebola epidemics, the last 100 years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated outbreaks and scares. Like man-eating sharks, predatory pathogens are always present in nature, waiting to strike; when one is seemingly vanquished, others appear in its place. The Pandemic Century exposes the limits of science against nature, and how these crises are shaped by humans as much as microbes.

About this title

Review:

'Timely but disturbing.'-- Mail on Sunday

'Gripping' --Nature

'Offers a mixture of gripping storytelling and insightful science. . . Alternately chilling and optimistic, Honigsbaum's reporting on a recurrent public health issue deserves wide attention.'--Publishers Weekly

'Lively, gruesome, and masterful. . . Honigsbaum mixes superb medical history with vivid portraits of the worldwide reactions to each [pandemic] event.'-- Kirkus (starred review)

'This engrossing history of the fight against pandemic disease explores how outbreaks emerge . . . Combining history, popular science, and policy, [Honigsbaum] describes each pandemic with journalistic immediacy, emphasizing the patterns that characterize responses to them. . . An important and timely work.'--Booklist

'An engaging and thoughtful journey through some of the world's greatest medical and social crises in recent decades. Honigsbaum is a worthy historian and guide to these dramatic reminders of human fallibility.' -- David L. Heymann, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

'Mark Honigsbaum does a superb job covering a century's worth of pandemics and the fears they invariably unleash. The moral of his cogent tale is that the next deadly pandemic is not a matter of if but of when and preparing for that fact is a far better prescription than reacting with panic, fear, or indifference.' --Howard Markel, Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for the History of Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, University of Michigan

'Infectious diseases remain among the most urgent health threats we face, but too often are consid-ered something that happens to other people, far away. In our interconnected world, this is no longer true, as Honigsbaum shows. His unique account drives home the human impact of epidem-ics, and the need for increased preparedness.' --Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust

About the Author:

Mark Honigsbaum is a medical historian, journalist, and author of The Fever Trail: In Search of the Cure for Malaria. He is currently a lecturer at City, University of London.

About this edition

• Publisher: C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1787381218
• ISBN 13: 9781787381216
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 392