Customer Reviews

Outbreak! Plagues That Changed History

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In this interesting book, author Bryn Barnard looks at six diseases that changed history - the Black Death, smallpox (in its effects on the New World), yellow fever, cholera, tuberculosis, and the Spanish Flu of 1918. Each disease is given its own chapter, where its history, causes and effects are all discussed in depth.

Now, it is true that the author does allow his political biases to intrude in the narrative - for example condemning British use of smallpox as a weapon, while merely glossing over the Mongol use of bubonic plague as a weapon, or holding up the Cuban health system as a model for future emulation. But, I do not think that it detracted too much from the overall excellent job that the author did in covering the diseases.

Now, it must be said that the book should be subtitled "Plagues that changed modern history," as even the author admits that such pre-modern plagues as Justinian's Plague of A.D. 542 and the 430 B.C. Plague of Athens changed history. But, that said, I did find this to be a very interesting read, one that is sure to please any reader interested in the history of disease.

This is an exciting and scientificaly accurate description of how the interaction of humans, culture and microbes have changed the world and the course of history through the centuries. It begins with the story of the Black Death (plauge) and brings us up to where the world is now poised on the brink of another flu epidemic like the Spanish flu of 1918. The writing is direct and imaginative with clear relationships established between various illnesses and there affects on human societes. I recommend this to anyone interested in current or past world events. And shouldn't that be all of us?

We found this book to increase the general interest of health care workers. OUTBREAK gave hospital employees different perspectives dealing with their fight against infection. It is a recommended read since it deepens the understanding of how our actions and habits can change history.

OUTFOX
OUTFOXprevention.com

This book is an interesting look at the impact certain diseases had on the course of human history. Unfortunately, the author allows his own political beliefs to bias his writing and often presents his own opinion as if it were fact. He is extremely hostile to the Catholic Church, the European explorers of the New World, capitalism, and non-socialized healthcare systems. He includes many criticisms of these things that have absolutely nothing to do with the disease. What exactly does the 1965 change in Catholic doctrine regarding the Jews have to do with the 14th century Black Death? Or the "waif" look fashionable in the 1990's have to do with the 19th century TB epidemic?

Barnard also tends to play up certain factors while minimizing others as suits his political agenda. For example, he goes on and on about the role Smallpox had in the European colonization of the New World while minimizing the role of vastly superior technology. Similarly, he credits Yellow Fever for ending the 19th century slave trade rather than Christian-led white abolitionist groups. He blames the U.S.' relatively high infant mortality rate on our lack of socialized medicine rather than demographic factors such as our much higher birth rate among high-risk women such as unwed teens, women in their late 30's & 40's, and the obese.

Christians mistreated jews (is that really a disease?), Yellow Fever was "sweet vengeance" against whites, and so forth and so on. This isn't a book on diseases, it's a book on politics.