Armies of Pestilence: The Impact of Pandemics on History

by R.S. Bray

The global outbreak of Covid-19 appears to be unprecedented in a world which has not suffered a serious pandemic for a century, while society had almost forgotten the enormous impact of highly infectious diseases throughout history. Pestilence, however, has played a major role in ending the Golden Age of Athens, wrecking Justinian's plans to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory, and killing untold millions in Latin America after the Spanish invasion. Despite its importance, historians have tended to minimise the role of infectious disease, partly because of a lack of scientific knowledge. This has resulted in a distorted view both of the past and of the danger of disease to modern society. In Armies of Pestilence, R.S. Bray, a distinguished biologist and an able historian, corrects this view with an exploration of the influence of disease on history. The book surveys the principal epidemics around the world and across the centuries, including scholarly discussion around those which cannot be certainly identified. In each case, Bray examines the origins of the outbreaks, as well as the symptoms, the mortality rate and the social and economic turmoil left in their wake. Bray pays special attention to the infamous organism that caused the Black Death, Yersina pestis, as well as other grimly familiar bogey-men of pestilential history including malaria, smallpox, typhus, cholera and influenza, and AIDS. Government responses to outbreaks are assessed, and the inability of governments to deal effectively with disease is a recurring theme. The relationship between disease and war, with the former often responsible for more deaths than the latter, is also considered in detail, as was the case during the last great influenza pandemic of 1918-19, at the end of the First World War

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, World History, Medical, Historical, Medicine

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[(unknown) · Rating 2 out of 5]

an army may march on its stomach, but it shits on its innoculations.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

The work is divided into "parts" based on the disease being discussed. Bray provides a description of each disease as he starts each section, then goes into the history of the disease and how they may have affected history by attacking armies and being spread by armies. The author admits that most, if not all of the work is from secondary sources. Thus one could consider it somewhat of a 'bibliographical' review. It is sometimes plodding reading yet it is good information to know and the last two chapters are on influenza a form of which may be the current (spring 2020) pandemic.

[Ryan Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book was so poorly edited that it was distracting. typos and missing words. I even think that there were margin notes left in the text. the main idea was supposed to be how epidemic infectious diseases have impacted history, but 80% was recounting different speculations about when diseases happened and what they might have been and who thought what about the actual numbers. repetitive, boring, uninformative. would love a recommendation on a good history of pandemics. timely right?

[Angelena Buvel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This way way too dry and the editing was terrible. I enjoyed the parts where I felt like history was being told with the inclusion of disease, but when the author kept getting bogged down in the he-said, she-said, it lost my interest.

[Sophia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Damn, it took me ages to get through this. Interesting topic, but I found it hard to read through.

[Mocha Latte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what is a fair rating for this book since I didn't finish it. I got stuck about a third of the way through. I didn't think it would be possible to call a book about famine and pestilence "dry and academic" but this book is. The long, winding, annotated sentences themselves would not have been so difficult to read if it weren't for the grammatical errors and bad editing (commas in weird places and sentences that appear to stop before completing their points). Reading this book also has the feel of auditing a History of Western Europe class; as a science nerd, it was frustrating to not have much background information on the historical events he referenced.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book would have been a lot easier to read had the author given more background information on the sources he cites. To say that he agrees with such and such an author while discrediting another without really saying what either position was makes this book very challenging to read, let alone stay interested. When he did discuss historical information, the book flowed smoothly and was full of interesting facts. That alone, however, was not enough to make it a must read. Good, but not great.

[Holly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having just devoured The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, I had high hopes for Armies of Pestilence, which made my subsequent disappointment all the more severe. It often relies on long quoted passages, which Bray then paraphrases in numbered lists, so it's very repetitive. It's pompous in tone and verbose. It's poorly edited. It's also deadly dull. In other words, it's an unreadable waste of time.

[Malinda Threadgill]

I initially read this book as a backdrop to help with genealogy patterns and migrations. It is an excellent book of history, genealogy reference, and health issues that have spanned the ages. I didn't think I would get that interested in this one, but WOW! was I wrong!!

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

excellent historic account of the major diseases to have plagued the earth

[Melissa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so boring/dry I ditched my copy before finishing it. C'est la vie.