Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

by Jonathan Kennedy

Almost five decades after it was first published, William McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples (1976) remains the most well-read and important book on the impact of epidemics on society, politics and economics. But so much has changed in the intervening years that it is now necessary to take a new look at the topic. Indeed, McNeill conceded in the opening pages that “exact information is lacking wherewith to create a history of human infections.” Back then, the main evidence was eyewitness accounts of people who had lived through pandemics. These provide an invaluable insight into the past but are sporadic at best, as well as heavily biased toward recent history and literate societies. In fact, there were so many gaps in the historical record that Plagues and Peoples relies as much on its author’s imagination as it does facts to piece together a coherent and convincing account of the narrative.