Plagues and Peoples (original 1976; edition 1998)

Plagues and Peoples is a good but very slow read. Firstly, I don't generally have to look up so many words while reading. I have a doctorate, but I couldn't claim to know (without some serious parsing of latinate and germanic roots) what pollulate, schistosomiasis, and ungulate mean. By the way, pollulate means to sprout; schistosomiasis means infestation with or disease caused by an elogated tremotode worm; and ungulate means hoofed herbivore. I fully understand that a book about diseases will contain the scientific names of those diseases. But this tried so hard to be erudite that it went overboard in its use of large and seldom used words. Thumbs up for this historical essay--it was a challenge.
The first half wasn't nearly as interesting as the second. Perhaps, that's because the first half concentrated on Asian History with which I have little familiarity. My facility is with Western History and writings. Still, the book was well-written by a person with an extraordinary sense of the "big picture." It contained sustained thoughts and themes that carried through to the end (which many history books fail to do). There were many interesting tidbits in it, like the idea that without small-pox the Spaniards would have had a difficult time conquering the New World and how Moslem politics and bigotry kept that culture from mimicking "Christian practices" that would have kept them safe from disease. It's a keeper. ( )

Classic, study of the effect of disease on human history. A ground-breaking study in the field. ( )

I began reading this knowing it would cover topics that interested me in [Guns, Germs, and Steel] and wasn't disappointed. The book covers mankind's encounters with disease from prehistory to the 20th century. I was especially interested in how he discusses macroparasitism in addition to microparasitism. The latter is very familiar to us, while the former may be something many of us have never consciously thought about. McNeill explains that in the same that parasites strike a balance with their hosts in which neither kills the other off too quickly, civilizations and social classes that prey upon the labor and resources of others must too be mindful of not taking too much and depriving them of resources needed to survive. He maintains this concept throughout much of the book, though I was a little disappointed he abandons the concept somewhat as he approaches modern history. Still, the book will encourage many readers to see history in a new light. ( )

Damn good. This is what chapter 11 of guns, germs and steel wants to be. ( )