Plagues and Peoples 1st Edition

by William H. McNeill (Author)

355 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0385121224

ISBN-10: 0385121229

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

No small themes for historian William McNeill: he is a writer of big, sweeping books, from The Rise of the West to The History of the World. Plagues and Peoples considers the influence of infectious diseases on the course of history, and McNeill pays special attention to the Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries, which killed millions across Europe and Asia. (At one point, writes McNeill, 10,000 people in Constantinople alone were dying each day from the plague.) With the new crop of plagues and epidemics in our own time, McNeill's quiet assertion that "in any effort to understand what lies ahead the role of infectious disease cannot properly be left out of consideration" takes on new significance.

From the Publisher

McNeill's highly acclaimed work is a brilliant and challenging account of the effects of disease on human history. His sophisticated analysis and detailed grasp of the subject make this book fascinating reading. By the author of The Rise Of The West.

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From the Back Cover

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.

About the Author

William H. McNeill is one of America's senior historians. He was professor of history at the University of Chicago for forty years before retiring in 1987. In the course of his career, he has published more than twenty books, inlcuding The Rise of the West: A History of Human Community, which won the National Book Award in 1964; Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force and Society Since 1000 A.D.; and Plagues and Peoples. Dr. McNeill was president of the American Historical Association in 1985. In 1996, he was the first non-European recipient of the Erasmus Prize, an annual award for exceptional contributions to European culture, society, and social science.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Anchor; 1st edition (January 1, 1976)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385121229
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385121224
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #48,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4 in History of Medicine (Books)
- #10 in Epidemiology (Books)
- #12 in Infectious Diseases (Books)

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Torinsall

Fascinating interconnected view of disease affecting history

Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2020

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I read the original Plaques and Peoples in the 1970s, then the updated edition from 1990s which added HIV and updated findings in other areas, and often recommend the book others. McNeill looks at history from the perspective of how infectious disease influenced its course, including diverse effects on things like where/when people settled, battle outcome, cultural development (ie the caste system in India), etc. Each chapter covers a different concept. While others have since written similar books, I have most enjoyed William McNeill's organization of material combined with a thorough yet entertaining writing style.

But I keep loaning my copy of Plaques and Peoples to others, who then pass it to others and so I end up buying myself another copy to keep on my shelf and periodically reread. I get more from it each time I revisit the book or a chapter, because McNeill brings together history, infectious disease, societal changes and development, combining all to show how we got where we are and how infectious disease continues to have its influence.

This book changed my view of history from being little more than memorising dates of battles for an exam in school courses, to a fascinating perspective of interconnections. I would highly recommend everyone in high school and adulthood read William McNeill's Plaques and Peoples.

40 people found this helpful

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P. Dailey

Infectious disease has probably played a greater role in history than previously understood

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2020

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The changing pattern of epidemic infection, referred to by MCNeill as the “Domestication of disease,” brought about by global exploration and trade between 1300 and 1700 marked a watershed in human history that enabled uninterrupted population growth that had previously been thwarted at intervals by massive disease-caused die-offs. “…It is the aim of this book…to bring the role of infectious disease in shaping human history into a juster [sic] perspective.” (230).
William McNeill attempts to engender this more just perspective by tracing what he believes are the likely developments in the spread of infectious disease from the birth of man through migrations around the world, up to the present day. The author introduces the concept of Macroparasitism as a means of explaining the spread of disease. This concept parallels the idea of microparasitism which is basically the germ model of disease, to characterize human systems of interaction as macroparasitism. McNeill characterizes the development of civilization as “fulminating macroparasitism.” By this he means that the specialization of individuals in civilization requires the agricultural members of society to produce sufficient excess to support city-dwellers in what can be described as a parasite/host type relationship.
McNeill explains population migration, war, trade, political upheaval and social development as examples of macroparsitic imbalance. In response to these imbalances, efforts to find equilibrium within the system explain many of the sweeping changes in man’s history.
McNeill contends that there were four major developed disease pools at the beginning of the Christian era: The Middle East; The Mediterranean; China; and India. Within these disease pools existed urban areas or concentrations of people in sufficient density and quantities to sustain endemic disease. The author then goes on to characterize many of the historically known outbreaks of epidemic disease either in terms of contact between these disease centers, or a breakout of a parasitic disease agent from its existing environmental niche.
The author posits that infectious disease played a great role in history, suggesting for example that the rise of Christianity and Bhudism in China may have benefited from epidemics as both traditions offered some explanation that served as a psychological salve where previous pagan traditions failed to explain the seemingly random but widespread devastation.
McNeill’s arguments in favor of disease as major catalysts for history are more thoroughly documented as the book progresses through the centuries to the present day. He points out that plague in the 17th century killed one million people in Spain and likely played an important role in the diminution of Spain’s economic and geopolitical power.
McNeil’s description of the role that disease played in the Spanish conquest of Latin America is compelling. A few hundred Spaniards ultimately subjugated parts of two continents. Disease killed 90% of the Amerindian population within a few decades of the arrival of the Spaniards. The lethality of diseases like Smallpox, to which the Europeans were largely immune, but the Amerindians had no immunity, not only decimated the population, but also destroyed institutions, belief systems, and the will to resist.
Infectious disease played an important role in American history too. Not only were the native populations decimated by diseases like smallpox, making room for new settlers, but infectious disease was an important factor in geopolitical developments as well. Notably, Napoleon agreed to the Louisiana purchase for a pittance because he had just lost 33,000 troops to Yellow Fever in Santo Domingo, and misguidedly subscribed to the miasmatic theory of disease (rather than the germ theory). Because Napoleon believed there was something infectious in the foreign soil, he sought to quickly reduce his foreign commitments.
In the end the book offers believable explanations not only for the global spread of infectious diseases, but also for those diseases playing a more formidable role in the history of man than most other historians accord. It is not a text replete with prima facie evidence, but because the assertions are very plausible explanations for events, it should be taken seriously enough to try and disprove the assertions with more rigorous scientific and academic research.

19 people found this helpful

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Rosey

Needs editing

Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2020

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The over-arching theme of this book -- the effect of contagious disease on history --- and the comparison between what he calls microparasitism and macroparasitism (invasion and occupation by a disease organism on the one hand, and by one group of humans over another on the other) -- this theme is a rich and valuable way of thinking about history. Unfortunately, the book is badly in need of editing. He skips from one century and people to another, one continental mass to another, and drops intriguing anecdotes here and there that disappear without elaboration. Terribly frustrating. The ideas float off in a tangle until it was impossible for me to keep my mind on what I was reading. Very disappointing.

13 people found this helpful

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Pattianne M.

Interesting

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2020

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Am a history buff & also into Science. Have been aware of pandemics almost my whole life since the 1918 flu pandemic was the reason I didn’t have a maternal grandfather & the reason my mother’s family immigrated to the USA.Dad’s side has been here since colonial days or before. Makes me a first AND multigenerational American.
* ended up not reading all the first. Halter, scientifically it is woefully out-of-date (written in the 1970’s) we know a LOT more about anthropology & archeology, not to mention DNA since then. The author or publisher should update that chapter. The rest appears interesting, I did not know the biological basis for the caste systems & his theories on the northern & southern regions of China. Interesting he refers to us humans as Macroparasites & germs & virtues & parasites as micro parasites.. I am half through the book & have learned a few new things & theories. Any book that informs me about a new fact or theory is a plus experience (I am BTW a retired RN)

6 people found this helpful

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Dan

Insightful, but not terribly enjoyable...

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2017

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The thesis of the book is quite interesting. Occasionally, some of the postulations and historical facts engage you.

But overall, this book is in dire need of a better editor. I read a lot of heavier nonfiction and understand that such topics won’t read like fiction. Even so, this was hard to read. I rarely ever quit on a book but seriously considered doing so about 50 pages in. Thankfully, the last 3/4 of the book are better.

19 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

broad spectrum music lover

Very informative and lots of viewpoints I wasn't aware of before

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2018

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Very informative and lots of viewpoints I wasn't aware of before. It would be nice if there existed an updated version of this 45 year old book, but it is still quite relevant. There is so much more information out there compared to the early seventies (when this was written), but as far as I am aware it is not available in such a concentrated form. Highly recommended.

A. Lewis

good book in good condition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2019

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It arrived well packed and safe and I am now reading it - the style is nice and very readable even though the book is quite old, it is well worth reading.

DhobyMick

Read this amazing book and your whole view of history will likely ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2018

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Read this amazing book and your whole view of history will likely be changed. I cannot praise it more highly.

One person found this helpful

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 7, 2018

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Book in excellent condition. Thank you!

Rey Bowen

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 30, 2018

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Good!

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