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Title details for The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum - Available

The Pandemic Century

One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris

by Mark Honigsbaum
John Lee
Audiobook
1 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 2 copies available
Ever since the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic, scientists have dreamed of preventing catastrophic outbreaks of infectious disease. Yet despite a century of medical progress, viral and bacterial disasters continue to take us by surprise, inciting panic and dominating news cycles. From the Spanish flu to the 1924 outbreak of pneumonic plague in Los Angeles to the 1930 "parrot fever" pandemic, through the more recent SARS, Ebola, and Zika epidemics, the last one hundred years have been marked by a succession of unanticipated pandemic alarms. In The Pandemic Century, a lively account of scares both infamous and less known, Mark Honigsbaum combines reportage with the history of science and medical sociology to artfully reconstruct epidemiological mysteries and the ecology of infectious diseases. We meet dedicated disease detectives, obstructive or incompetent public health officials, and brilliant scientists often blinded by their own knowledge of bacteria and viruses. Like man-eating sharks, predatory pathogens are always present in nature, waiting to strike; when one is seemingly vanquished, others appear in its place. These pandemics remind us of the limits of scientific knowledge, as well as the role that human behavior and technologies play in the emergence and spread of microbial diseases.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 9, 2019

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781684419883
      • File size: 393675 KB
      • Duration: 13:40:09

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Listeners may find themselves checking for symptoms as they explore this well-researched volume detailing efforts to identify and eradicate better known and more obscure pandemics of the twentieth century, including Spanish influenza, parrot fever, AIDS and ebola. John Lee's narration appreciably enhances this illuminating audiobook. His steady voice, careful pacing, and authoritarian intonation help listeners consider the alarming statistics on worldwide deaths from pandemics and absorb the abundant medical and scientific data, although these findings occasionally become too technical for a general audience. Medical historian Honigsbaum intersperses factual information with multiple accounts of individuals struck by these illnesses and those who worked to save them. Lee's voice warms and softens to express small moments in these lost lives. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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