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Fright, Fever, Flu:  Absorbing but Scary Medical Histories

Plagues and Peoples By McNeill, William H. 1977-10 - Anchor Books 9780385121224 Check Our Catalog 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. …More

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic By Kolata, Gina 2001-01 - Touchstone Books 9780743203982 Check Our Catalog The author examines the Great Influenza Epidemic of 1918 that killed an estimated 40 to 100 million people in the world, and delves into the mystery that still surrounds it. Kolata takes readers into the lab where scientists today are working with samples of the virus, and addresses the prospects for a recurrence of an equally lethal pandemic. …More

The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years By Shah, Sonia 2011-06 - Picador USA 9780312573010 Check Our Catalog In recent years, malaria has emerged as a cause celebre for voguish philanthropists. Bill Gates, Bono, and Laura Bush are only a few of the personalities who have opened their pocketbooks in hopes of eradicating the scourge. How does a parasitic disease that we've known how to prevent for more than a century still infect three hundred million people every year, killing nearly one million of them? In "The Fever"," " the journalist Sonia Shah sets out to answer this question, delivering a timely, inquisitive chronicle of the illness and its influence on human lives. "The Fever" captures the curiously fascinating, devastating history of this long-standing thorn in the side of humanity. …More

Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus By Wasik, Bill Author Murphy, Monica 2012-07 - Viking Books 9780670023738 Check Our Catalog An engrossing and lively history of the fearsome and mythologized virus. In the tradition of "The Emperor of All Maladies" and "The Great Influenza," journalist Wasik and veterinarian Murphy chart the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. …More

The Colony: The Harrowing True Story of the Exiles of Molokai By Tayman, John 2007-01 - Scribner Book Company 9780743233019 Check Our Catalog In the bestselling tradition of "In the Heart of the Sea" comes the untold history of America's only leper colony--which exists even today--and the extraordinary people forced to create a community under horrific circumstances. …More

The End of Plagues: The Global Battle Against Infectious Disease By Rhodes, John 2013-09 - Palgrave MacMillan 9781137278524 Check Our Catalog …More