The 2014 Ebola epidemic demonstrated the power of pandemics and their ability not only to destroy lives locally but also to capture the imagination and terrify the world. In 2019 and the years that followed, the coronavirus pandemic infected every continent and took the lives of millions. In this updated edition, Christian W. McMillen provides a concise yet comprehensive account of pandemics throughout human history, illustrating how pandemic disease has shaped history and, at the same time, social behavior has influenced pandemic disease. Extremely interesting from a medical standpoint, the study of pandemics also provides unexpected, broader insights into culture and politics.
 

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Plague
Chapter 2: Smallpox
Chapter 3: Malaria
Chapter 4: Cholera
Chapter 5: Tuberculosis
Chapter 6: Influenza
Chapter 7: HIV/AIDS
Chapter 8: COVID-19
References
Further reading
Index

Christian W. McMillen is Professor of History at the University of Virginia, where he teaches courses on American Indian history and the history of epidemic disease. He is the author of Making Indian Law: The Hualapai Land Case and the Birth of Ethnohistory and Discovering Tuberculosis: A Global History, 1900 to the Present.