A History of the World in Six Plagues
How Contagion, Class and Captivity Shape Us, from Cholera to Covid-19
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A History of the World in Six Plagues
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Narrated by:
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By:
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Edna Bonhomme
About this listen
In this groundbreaking work, Bonhomme explores how six pivotal diseases-Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19-have shaped the trajectory of human history. With vivid storytelling and rigorous research, she reveals how pandemics have consistently widened the gaps in racial, economic, and sociopolitical divides, from the slave ships of the Atlantic to today's fractured healthcare systems.
How did a colonial obsession with sugar amplify the devastation of Cholera? Why did sleeping sickness become a weapon of empire in Tanzania? And how has COVID-19 magnified inequities in our modern, interconnected world?
Bonhomme's incisive analysis transforms our understanding of public health, not as a neutral force but as a stage where power, policy, and prejudice collide. Urgent and illuminating, A History of the World in Six Plagues is not just a history of disease - it is a call to reimagine a more equitable future in the face of ongoing global health challenges.
'This book tells the accounts of people who deserved better. It is also a story of redemption, and of the little child in all of us, curled up alone in a huge bed, without her parents, who wants to be healthy and free.'©2024 Edna Bonhomme (P)2024 Hachette Audio UK
Critic reviews
An expansive portraiture of how colonialism and confinement have influenced our understanding of illness and humanity. Thankfully, due to the author's talent and sheer strength in combining personal narrative with history, this book is also tender as it tackles some of the most stigmatized subjects of our time. (Morgan Jerkins, author of WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS)
Bonhomme embarks on a breathtaking journey through the intertwined histories of contagions and systemic inequities that have shaped our history. With poignant insights and compelling personal narratives, she reveals the stories of marginalized individuals and communities often overlooked in society. Bonhomme's thought-provoking exploration not only sheds light on past injustices but challenges us to confront our history and envision a more compassionate future. (Uché Blackstock, author of LEGACY)
Pandemics thrive on inequities and widen them, providing more kindling for future plagues. This simple lesson has proven devastatingly difficult to learn. But I think that if everyone read Edna Bonhomme's incredible, humane, insightful book--and I hope they do--we might stand a chance of actually breaking the cycle of neglect and panic. (Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of I CONTAIN MULTITUDES and AN IMMENSE WORLD)
This book is a tour de force! A brilliant and beautifully written account of the contours of contagion, health, race, gender, confinement, class and space across multiple centuries and geohistories. A History of the World in Six Plagues will change how people think about public health and histories of medicine. (Dr. Tiffany N. Florvil, Associate Professor of History at The University of New Mexico and author of MOBILIZING BLACK GERMANY)
Equal parts intimate portrait of illness and piercing analysis of our socio-political predicament. From empires to modern states, no civilization escapes the consequences of a plague. Let this book be a guide for our pandemic past, present and probable--but by no means inescapable--future. (George Aumoithe, Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University)