About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherThames & Hudson

ISBN-100500296138

ISBN-139780500296134

eBay Product ID (ePID)16050070944

Product Key Features

Number of Pages336 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NamePlague, Pestilence and Pandemic : Voices from History

SubjectPublic Health, Social History

Publication Year2021

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaMedical, History

AuthorPeter Furtado

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height1 in

Item Weight15.4 Oz

Item Length7.8 in

Item Width5 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2020-951764

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal614.49

SynopsisHumanity has always been touched by plague, pestilence and pandemic, from ancient times to the present day. This brilliant collection weaves together firsthand accounts of doctors, artists, historians and everyday people who lived through the worst contagions humanity has faced, including Covid-19. The blend of courage, despair, black humor, heartbreak and hope in their words is instantly relatable, and a powerful reminder of human endurance. Book jacket., A collection of intimate and revelatory first-hand accounts of pandemics through the ages. Humanity has always been struck by pestilence and pandemics, from the plagues of ancient Egypt to the pox that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, to Covid-19. People living through the crises have always recorded what they saw, what they felt, and what they did. Some presented sober facts laced with anecdote, while others produced emotional outpourings; moralists speculated on the origins of the horror, poets distilled the suffering. Doctors described how they were able to advance their understanding of disease and scientists how to cure it, while survivors and the families of victims gave the inside story of the nightmare that develops when a long-feared disease enters your home or your body. There was a time when to read accounts of the Plague in Wittenburg by Martin Luther or the Great Plague of 1665 by Samuel Pepys - scenes of anguish and woe, empty streets, quarantined houses, closed businesses, overflowing graveyards, heroic doctors and nurses, quack remedies and charlatans - was to enter a disturbing and unfamiliar world. Today, to read the same words is to be hit by a jolt of recognition and understanding. As well as causing a huge loss of life, the Covid pandemic has taught us a great deal about ourselves and the way we live, illuminating tensions at the heart of society. This collection of intimate and revelatory first-hand accounts of pandemics through the ages bears witness to despair, rage, the blackest of humour, heartbreak and hope. These voices hold up a mirror to our own experiences of, and responses to, the crisis today., Plague, pestilence, and pandemics have been a part of the human story from the beginning and have been reflected in art and writing at every turn. Humankind has always struggled with illness; and the experiences of different cities and countries have been compared and connected for thousands of years. Many great authors have published their eyewitness accounts and survivor stories of the great contagions of the past. When the great Muslim traveler Ibn Battuta visited Damascus in 1348 during the great plague, which went on to kill half of the population, he wrote about everything he saw. He reported, "God lightened their affliction; for the number of deaths in a single day at Damascus did not attain 2,000, while in Cairo it reached the figure of 24,000 a day." From the plagues of ancient Egypt recorded in Genesis to those like the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the Middle Ages, and from the Spanish flu of 1918 to the Covid-19 pandemic in our own century, this anthology contains fascinating accounts. Editor Peter Furtado places the human experience at the center of these stories, understanding that the way people have responded to disease crises over the centuries holds up a mirror to our own actions and experiences. Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic includes writing from around the world and highlights the shared emotional responses to pandemics: from rage, despair, dark humor, and heartbreak, to finally, hope that it may all be over. By connecting these moments in history, this book places our own reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic within the longer human story., An eye-opening anthology from the bestselling editor of Histories of Nations, exploring how people around the globe have suffered and survived during plague and pandemic, from the ancient world to the present.

LC Classification NumberRA649.P58 2021