Plagues and peoples / William H. McNeill.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McNeill, William Hardy, 1917-2016, author.

Contributor:

ProQuest ebook central.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Epidemics--History.

Epidemics.

History.

Epidemics--Social aspects.

Civilization--History.

Civilization.

Diseases and history.

Disease Outbreaks--history.

Civilization--history.

Communicable Diseases--history.

Medical Subjects:

Disease Outbreaks--history.

Civilization--history.

Communicable Diseases--history.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (365 pages) : 1 map

Place of Publication:

New York [New York] : Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1998.

[Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1976]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Introduction

Man the hunter

Breakthrough to history

Confluence of the civilized disease pools of Eurasia : 500 B.C. to A.D. 1200

The impact of the Mongol Empire on shifting disease balances, 1200-1500

Transoceanic exchanges, 1500-1700

The ecological impact of medical science and organization since 1700

Appendix. Epidemics in China / a check list compiled by Joseph H. Cha, professor for Far East history, Quincy College.

Notes:

"Anchor Book editions, 1977, 1989, 1998"--Title page verso.

"Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday in 1977"--Title page verso. Date is incorrect; originally published in 1976.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-353) and index.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI Available via World Wide Web.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Online version: McNeill, William Hardy, 1917- Plagues and peoples.

ISBN:

9780307773661

0307773663

Publisher Number:

99984920267

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.