Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

by Jonathan Kennedy

When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe. —Frantz Fanon

Although John McNeill is careful not to completely ignore the role of Great Men like George Washington, he drolly suggests that the female Anopheles quadrimaculatus mosquitoes should be considered one of the “founding mothers of the United States.” As he points out, malaria killed eight times more British troops than American guns.

Napoleon realized victory was unachievable. He is supposed to have muttered, “Damn sugar! Damn coffee! Damn colonies!”[80] If he had better understood the ultimate cause of his army’s downfall, he would have perhaps cursed Aedes aegypti and RNA viruses too.