Armies of Pestilence: The Effects of Pandemics on History [Hardcover]

R S Bray (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0718829492 | ISBN-13: 978-0718829490 | Publication Date: January 1, 1997 | Edition: 1

The influence that disease has had on history has often been hidden behind the more 'glorious' exploits of individuals and monarchs. The periods discussed reach from Biblical accounts of epidemics, through the Justinian plague, the Plague (the scourge of medieval Europe)... malaria, yellow fever, small pox, typhus and cholera, through to the present day of the 1976 influenza epidemic.

Author RS Bray offers a comprehensive evaluation of many other works, both scientific and historical which provide a vast basis for research on this subject. His vigorous style and timely injections of humor make this an absorbing and accessible book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

R.S. Bray took his BSc at the University of Adelaide and went on to gain two doctorates from the University of London. He has lectured around the world and published many scientific articles. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Biology, an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Protozoologists and the British Society of Parasitology, and former Vice-President of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. His work with the Liberian Institute of the American Foundation for Tropical Medicine gained him the Award of Knight Great Band of the order of African Redemption. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 258 pages
• Publisher: Lutterworth Press; 1 edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718829492
• ISBN-13: 978-0718829490
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,154,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent, March 14, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Armies of Pestilence: The Effects of Pandemics on History (Hardcover)

Bray has obviously done a lot or research for this book. He knows his diseases and his history; unfortunately, he has a bit of trouble writing. The grammar is at times appalling. Here is one of many examples:
"During the Thirty Years War Germany lost half of its population mostly to typhus and the consequent demographic collapse of Central Europe in the seventeenth-century delayed any substantial recovery from the decline already caused by the Black Death and postponed the recovery of Germany until the rise of Prussia." No, I did not leave out any punctuation; it is a 50 word sentence with zero commas or semicolons. I'm normally not very anal about things like this, but it happens so often as to detract from the message.

His reliance on primarily secondary sources is troublesome. I would prefer to hear why a certain author is wrong based on the primary source evidence. He has a tendency to list statistics, which are no doubt important but need to be introduced in a manner that is readable and understandable.

I would not recommend this book to someone looking for an introduction to disease history; however, if you are well-versed in general history and already know a bit about diseases, you will find it worth a read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting but very poorly written, March 16, 2010

By 

Rosanna - See all my reviews

This review is from: Armies of Pestilence: The Impact of Disease on History (Paperback)

While the book was informative, it was full of grammatical errors, spelling errors, punctuation errors, and paragraphs that were so poorly written they didn't make sense. There were so many mistakes, it was distracting. Many times there were five and six errors on one page.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book but not engaging, August 1, 2007

By 

Robert J. Lorenzini (Chicago, IL, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Armies of Pestilence: The Impact of Disease on History (Paperback)

Plain and simple the subject matter in this book is absolutely fascinating. The essential format of the book is going back and analyzing known historical pandemic outbreaks of disease, using deductive reasoning to identify the assailant, assessing the historical impact and consequence of the outbreak.

This book gets 5 stars for subject matter and historicity. But I give the book only 1 star for writing style and its ability to keep your interest. I have a very strong science background and this book was very difficult to finish simply because the author did not make it particularly interesting (IMHO). He relied way too much on quotes and citing the observances of other historians, unfortunately the book ends up being very dry. However the authors understanding of history, disease and facts is excellent. He obviously knows his subject matter very well.