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Plagues and Peoples

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Plagues and Peoples - McNeill, William
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This book describes the dramatic impact of infectious diseases on the rise and fall of civilisations. Plague demoralized the Athenian army during the Peloponnesian war, and ravaged the Roman Empire. In the 16th century smallpox was the decisive agent that allowed Cortez with only 600 men to conquer the Aztec empire, whose subjects numbered millions. As recently as 1918-19 an epidemic of influenza claimed twenty-one million victims, and seemed to threaten civilization itself. Diseases such as syphilis, cholera, smallpox and ...

Plagues and Peoples 1994, Penguin Books Ltd, London

ISBN-13: 9780140233643

New edition

Mass-market paperback

Select 		Plagues and Peoples 1979, Penguin Books Ltd, London

ISBN-13: 9780140551396

New edition

Mass-market paperback

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Plagues and Peoples 1977, Anchor Books, New York, NY

ISBN-13: 9780385121224

Trade paperback

Select 		Plagues and Peoples 1977, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford

ISBN-13: 9780631178804

Hardcover

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Plagues and peoples 1976, Anchor Press, Garden City, N.Y.

ISBN-13: 9780385112567

Hardcover

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All Editions of Plagues and Peoples

Plagues and Peoples

1994, Mass-market paperback

ISBN-13:

9780140233643

Plagues and Peoples

1979, Mass-market paperback

ISBN-13:

9780140551396

Plagues and Peoples

1977, Trade paperback

ISBN-13:

9780385121224

Plagues and Peoples

1977, Hardcover

ISBN-13:

9780631178804

Plagues and peoples

1976, Hardcover

ISBN-13:

9780385112567

Books by William H. McNeill

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Customer Reviews

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SociologyStudent

Mar 5, 2009

Highly recommended

Great book for anyone interested in disease, society, culture, world civilization, and most of all - history. Plagues and Peoples is a tale of the oppressor and the oppressed, the host and the victim. The book is wonderful in helping understand both separate historical events and the general trends that shaped human history, especially in its early stages.
Reading the book also raises one's appreciation for various cultures and societies that have existed in various corners of the globe, with their own little ways of dealing with life, overshadowed by deadly pathogens they had no idea about.
McNeill is particularly good at describing the social nature of disease. Plague and pestilence will never simply be the random ravages of a nasty germ having read this book. Epidemics follow predictable patterns and exact damage in a systematic manner that is not be overlooked by a student of society.
Disease is not just thickly woven into histories of nations, but is also uniquely understood by those that encounter it. The religious, philosophic, and poetic grappling with hellish affliction is a sight to behold.
A classic that deserves the title.

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