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Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914 (New Approaches to the Americas) by [J. R. McNeill]

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John Robert McNeill

Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620–1914 (New Approaches to the Americas) Illustrated Edition, Kindle Edition

by J. R. McNeill (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 72 ratings

Part of: New Approaches to the Americas (14 books)

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This book explores the links among ecology, disease, and international politics in the context of the Greater Caribbean - the landscapes lying between Surinam and the Chesapeake - in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. Ecological changes made these landscapes especially suitable for the vector mosquitoes of yellow fever and malaria, and these diseases wrought systematic havoc among armies and would-be settlers. Because yellow fever confers immunity on survivors of the disease, and because malaria confers resistance, these diseases played partisan roles in the struggles for empire and revolution, attacking some populations more severely than others. In particular, yellow fever and malaria attacked newcomers to the region, which helped keep the Spanish Empire Spanish in the face of predatory rivals in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In the late eighteenth and through the nineteenth century, these diseases helped revolutions to succeed by decimating forces sent out from Europe to prevent them.

ISBN-13

978-0521452861
Edition

Illustrated
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Cambridge University Press
Publication date

January 11, 2010
Part of series

New Approaches to the Americas
Language

English
File size

2332 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Brilliant. Ranging freely across the 'Greater Caribbean' … McNeill makes a riveting case that the primary driver in the colonial conflicts there was not political or economic but microbiological."
Charles C. Mann, Wall Street Journal

"J. R. McNeill’s new book does more than exhibit his usual gifts – breadth of range, mastery of material, depth of insight, freedom of thought, clarity of expression. It has changed the way I think about empires of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and will challenge many readers’ assumptions about the limits of human agency in shaping great events."
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, University of Notre Dame

"In this authoritative and engaging book, J. R. McNeill argues convincingly that disease played a pivotal role in many of the momentous events of Caribbean history. He shows how the region’s disease ecology changed following the advent of European colonization and how this served and then subverted the interests of the Caribbean’s oldest colonial powers. Mosquito Empires is indispensable to any student of Caribbean history or the history of disease."
Mark Harrison, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford

"Who would have guessed that the mosquito played such a vital role, shaping the fate of empires and revolutions, in such a vitally important part of the world? This provocative book is an eye-opener, written with great verve and wit."
Philip Morgan, Johns Hopkins University

"For most of the last five centuries, the Atlantic empires – European and North American – wrested, fought wars, and killed thousands of citizens and slaves for possession of the wealth swaying in the fields of the Caribbean islands and coastlines. The dominant factors in the long conflict, no matter what the protagonists claimed, were not political or religious or even economic but septic, that is, the microbes of yellow fever and malaria. J. R. McNeill’s book is by far the clearest, best informed, and scientifically accurate of the accounts available on this sugary conflict."
Alfred W. Crosby, Professor Emeritus of History, Geography, and American Studies, University of Texas at Austin

"Drawing on an enormous documentary source base, culled from many archives and texts in several languages, and ranging effortlessly across military history and medical science, J. R. McNeill's book is a major achievement. Henceforth, histories of empire, warfare, and international relations that neglects the environmental context of the events they recount will be seriously deficient."
Gabriel Paquette, Times Literary Supplement

"… this is a truly impressive book that makes a major contribution to our understanding of the Greater Caribbean and beyond."
Matthew Mulcahy, William and Mary Quarterly

"McNeill's seminal and path-breaking new study will surely play a leading role in providing a clear historical understanding of colonization and its aftermath in a vast area of the Western Hemisphere."
American Historical Review

"This ambitious work is an enjoyable, convincing read. Highly recommended."
Choice

"… a valuable addition to the historiography of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Caribbean."
Mariola Espinosa, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"… a welcome addition to maritime and imperial history."
Paul Webb, International Journal of Maritime History

"… a fine study that will be read and admired for generations to come."
Paul Kopperman, The Journal of Southern History

"In his compelling new book, J. R. McNeill asserts that over the course of two centuries historical events in the Americas shifted on tides of fevered sweat and black vomit."
Jennifer L. Anderson, European History Quarterly

"… gives a valuable framework for understanding the biology of colonization and independence in the Americas."
Lynn A. Nelson, Florida Historical Quarterly

"… a wonderful book, as fun to read as it is thought-provoking and informative."
Molly A. Warsh, Journal of World History --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Book Description

This book explores the links among ecology, disease, and international politics in the context of the Greater Caribbean in the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004123D3O
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cambridge University Press; Illustrated edition (January 11, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 11, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2332 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Up to 4 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0521459109

Best Sellers Rank: #1,007,249 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #201 in Communicable Diseases (Kindle Store)
- #203 in Ecology (Kindle Store)
- #205 in History of the Caribbean & West Indies

Customer Reviews:
4.6 72 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

72 global ratings

5 star		76%
4 star		15%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Karl Kane

A bit of history you don't learn in school.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 26, 2022

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Sheds light on an aspect of history that is rarely discussed but had a major impact on imperialism and warfare across four centuries. It's a great companion to Jared Diamond's "Guns, GERMS and Steel". Heavily footnoted/researched, reads more like academic paper.

Helpful

ccmann

Clear, dryly witty overview of a little-known history

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2010

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I know the author slightly, so readers may want to take this recommendation with the proverbial grain of salt. But I thought this book was terrific -- full of interesting ideas and things I didn't know about, all written in wonderfully clear prose. This story, the product of 20 years of research, tells how malaria and yellow fever came to the Americas, and the mind-boggling stuff that happened afterward. McNeill is an exceptionally careful, understated writer, always making sure the reader knows what is documented and what is speculation, and constantly stressing that the two diseases are not the *only* cause of the events he is describing. Nevertheless, it is clear that they played a big role in matters as weighty as the creation of American slavery and the Revolutionary War and as weird as the attempt by Scotland to seize Panama and the fact that Barbados was (briefly) one of the richest places in the world. Some of the events that McNeill recounts are astounding, and as he writes the reader can detect the barest hint of his raised eyebrows. Knowing McNeill a bit was how I first heard of this book, but not why I enjoyed reading it so much.

25 people found this helpful

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Gus

This book is exactly what it says it is; ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 16, 2018

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This book is exactly what it says it is; a detailed history of the role of yellow fever and malaria in the colonization of the Caribbean. The book is a carefully researched volume with many footnotes for anyone who might want to read further into the topic. This is a scholarly work and may not appeal to general readers, although it certainly reveals the extent to which the two diseases influenced the process of colonization in the Caribbean.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

William Page

but he makes a pretty persuasive case that both generals' strategies were made in ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 30, 2014

Verified Purchase

The author does not pretend that Washington's strategy and the timely intervention of the French fleet were not instrumental in causing Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, but he makes a pretty persuasive case that both generals' strategies were made in the context of their awareness of the prevalance of malaria (not that either of the two knew malaria by that name or had any idea of the mechanism of disease transmission). This is just an interesting (to "Americans", at least) coda to a very good book focused on the impact of yellow fever and malaria on fortunes of Spanish, Portugese, French, Dutch and American competitions in what the author calls the "Greater Carribean Area".

3 people found this helpful

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Mercedes

Fascinating, but repetitive

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 6, 2018

Verified Purchase

The premise of this book is very interesting. I loved learning about how disease shaped the world of the Caribbean. However, there is far too much information about battles that could be summed up in the sentence "Most of them died". McNeill obviously put an incredible amount of work and effort into this book, but it isn't the most enjoyable read because of all of this (sometimes superfluous) information. He also tends to repeat his thoughts, which can get annoying. Despite all this, I am very glad I read through it. I would recommend to anyone interested in environmental history or military history of the greater Caribbean.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Beast41R

Pirates, Conquistadors, Slaves and Mosquitos; A well-written hostory of an incredibly complicated region

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 4, 2016

Verified Purchase

What a tome. I expected this to be a dry, scholarly work. It was. But it was well-written, and told the other side of much of the colonial history I knew from school and other reading. I had no idea that Scotland invaded Panama, that Jews fought with both pirates and their Spanish and Portuguese enemies, or how the Golden Age of Piracy in the Caribbean only happened because yellow fever went into remission for a few decades. This book is a welcome addition to my library.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

readsalot

Great well written book, theory well supported, interesting

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

I am a very eclectic reader, and knowledge of our greatest evolutionary and now (in this book) social selection effector is somehow entertaining, important, and mentally stimulating. Other good books that expand this topic; "Ecological Imperialism" by Alfred Cosby, "Missing Microbes" by Martin Blaser, "The Amoeba in the Room" by Nicholas Money, "Parasite Rex" & "A Planet of Viruses" both by Carl Zimmer and "People parasites and Plowshares" by Dickson Despommer.

2 people found this helpful

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Carlos Mendez Cali

Wonderful book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 23, 2014

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I read this book because it was one of the references in "1493". This is one of those eye-opening books that every reader interested in caribbean and americas' history should read

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

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MEMA

excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

Superb thoughtful book, easy to read. Excellent.

Carlos Brisola marcondes

ótimo

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on May 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

ótimo. Se alguém me contratasse, gostaria de traduzir para o português

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carl mccrosky

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on November 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

This book is very interesting. It shows the importance of disease in the European settlement of the Americas.

Rene

Spannend

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on February 4, 2014

Verified Purchase

Das Buch war ein Fehlkauf. Eigentlich hatte ich mich für die Antlantikküste Nicaraguas interessiert, der Mosquitia. Aber der Text war trotzdem spannend.

One person found this helpful

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Mairton Celestino da silva

Livro Referência

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on June 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

Inovador na abordagem, leve na escrita. Um livro que merece nossa atenção exatamente pelas aberturas possíveis para outras pesquisas. Recomendo!!!

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