Epidemics and Pandemics: From Ancient Plagues to Modern-Day Threats [2 Volumes]

Beyond their impact on public health, epidemics shape and are shaped by political, economic, and social forces. This book examines these connections, exploring key topics in the study of disease outbreaks and delving deep into specific historical and contemporary examples. From the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 14th century to the influenza pandemic following World War I and the novel strain of coronavirus that made "social distancing" the new normal, wide-scale disease outbreaks have played an important role throughout human history. In addition to the toll they take on human lives, epidemics have spurred medical innovations, toppled governments, crippled economies, and led to cultural revolutions. Epidemics and Pandemics: From Ancient Plagues to Modern-Day Threats provides readers with a holistic view of the terrifying—and fascinating—topic of epidemics and pandemics. In Volume 1, readers will discover what an epidemic is, how it emerges and spreads, what diseases are most likely to become epidemics, and how disease outbreaks are tracked, prevented, and combatted. They will learn about the impacts of such modern factors as global air travel and antibiotic resistance, as well as the roles played by public health agencies and the media. Volume 2 offers detailed case studies that explore the course and lasting significance of individual epidemics and pandemics throughout history.

Table of Contents:
VOLUME 1 Acknowledgments Introduction Part 1: The Fundamentals 1. A Look Inside: Pathogens and the Human Body The Types of Pathogens That Cause Infectious Disease The Human Body Fights Back: The Immune System, Resistance, and Immunity The Damage That Pathogens Can Cause Inside the Human Body Various Symptoms: The Signs on the Outside Sources and Further Reading 2. Gateways for Pathogens: Sources, Hosts, Vectors, and Contracting Disease Infectious Diseases: Reservoirs, Hosts, and Pathogen Sources "Catching Diseases": How Microscopic Pathogens Enter the Human Body Parasitic Worms and Disease Sources and Further Reading 3. Outbreaks, Epidemics, and Pandemics Outbreak: Disease Occurring within Limited Populations Epidemic: When Disease Spreads beyond Limited Populations Pandemic: Beyond an Epidemic in Space, Severity, and Duration Sources and Further Reading 4. Confronting Infectious Disease: Before Germ Theory Theories of Health and Disease before the Discovery of Germs Campaigns against Plague before the Discovery of Germs Nineteenth-century Medical Achievements before the Discovery of Germs Sources and Further Reading 5. Battles against Infectious Disease: Triumph of Germ Theory Discovering and Subduing the Germ: Major Medical Advances from Louis Pasteur to Unravelling the Genome Major Public Health Advances of the Twentieth Century A World War against Disease: International Organization and Efforts Sources and Further Reading 6. Epidemic Disease in the Twenty-First Century Perfect Storms: Social, Economic, and Political Conditions Conducive to Disease Continuing Diseases New and Emerging Diseases Reemerging Diseases Frontiers of Medicine: Trends in Prevention and Treatment Some Contemporary Global Public Health Initiatives Sources and Further Reading Part 2: Epidemics and Human Society 7. Economics and Epidemic Disease Economics and the Spread of Pathogens Wealth, Poverty, and Disease Economic Effects of Epidemics State Economic Intervention in Disease Prevention and Control Sources and Further Reading 8. Governments, Politics, and Plagues Plagues and Governments in the Premodern World The Age of Cholera and Nineteenth-Century International Cooperation AIDS and the Modern State in the 1980s Epilogue: COVID-19 Sources and Further Reading 9. Religion, Magic, and Epidemic Disease Religious Causal Explanations: From Apollo to Ebola Religious Responses to Disease Religious Factors in Spreading Disease Effects of Epidemic Disease on Religion Magic as Cause and Cure Sources and Further Reading 10. War and Epidemics The Gathering: Mobilization, Training, Disease, and Infection Prevention Before the Shooting Starts: Camp and Garrison Life and Disease When the Marching Starts War, Disease, and the Noncombatant Biological Warfare When the Shooting Stops Sources and Further Reading 11. Colonialism, Slavery, Racism, and Epidemic Disease Contact: Initial Shocks Slave Life in the Americas Race, Ethnicity, and Disease Sources and Further Reading 12. Sex and Epidemic Disease Pathogens and STDs Historical Perspectives on Venereal Diseases The Sexual Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s From Transmission to Epidemic Sources and Further Reading 13. Media and Epidemics from Gutenberg to AIDS Early Popular Press and Epidemic Disease Emerging Telecommunication and Mass Media Mass Media and AIDS in the 1980s Sources and Further Reading 14. Disease in the Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts The Arts and the Second Plague Pandemic Tuberculosis, Romanticism, and Realism AIDS and the Arts Fictional Diseases in Contemporary Films and Novels Sources and Further Reading VOLUME 2 1. Malaria in Ancient Rome 2. First Plague Pandemic, 541–747 3. Smallpox Epidemic in Japan, 735–737 4. Leprosy in Medieval Europe 5. The Black Death Begins: The Second Plague Pandemic, 1346–1352 6. Epidemics in Sixteenth-Century America 7. "French Disease" in Sixteenth-Century Europe 8. Epidemics and the Thirty Years' War, 1618–1648 9. Plague in Italian Cities, 1630s 10. Epidemics in China, 1635–1644 11. Plague in London, 1665 12. Plague in Marseille, 1720–1722 13. Smallpox in Boston, 1721 14. Smallpox in Eighteenth-Century Europe 15. Plague in Moscow, 1771 16. Yellow Fever in Hispaniola, 1793–1804 17. Yellow Fever in Philadelphia, 1793 18. Epidemics in the Napoleonic Wars, 1797–1815 19. Consumption in the Nineteenth Century 20. First Cholera Pandemic, 1817–1824 21. Second Cholera Pandemic, 1827–1835 22. Third Cholera Pandemic, 1839–1856 23. Typhoid Fever in Cities, 1850–1920 24. Yellow Fever in New Orleans, 1853 25. Fourth Cholera Pandemic, 1863–1875 26. Smallpox in Europe, 1870–1875 27. Measles in Fiji, 1875 28. Fifth Cholera Pandemic, 1881–1896 29. Influenza Pandemic, 1889–1893 30. Cholera Epidemic in Hamburg, 1892 31. Third Plague Pandemic, 1894–? 32. Sixth Cholera Pandemic, 1899–1923 33. Sleeping Sickness in East Central Africa, 1900–1905 34. Typhoid Mary's "Epidemics," 1906–1915 35. Pneumonic Plague Epidemic in Manchuria, 1910–1911 36. Cholera Epidemic in Naples, 1910–1911 37. Poliomyelitis in the United States, 1916 38. Influenza Pandemic, 1918–1919 39. Poliomyelitis in the United States, 1945–1955 40. Seventh Cholera Pandemic, 1961– 41. Contemporary HIV/AIDS Pandemic, 1980– 42. The Mad Cow Crisis and Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies, 1985– 43. Contemporary Malaria 44. Contemporary Tuberculosis 45. SARS Epidemic, East Asia, 2002–2003 46. "Asian Flu" (H1N1) Epidemic, Asia, 2009–2010 47. MERS Epidemic, Middle East, 2012–? 48. Ebola Virus Epidemic, West Africa, 2013–2016 49. Pneumonic Plague Epidemic, Madagascar, 2014–2017 50. Zika Virus Epidemic, Latin America and the Caribbean, 2015–2017 51. Cholera Epidemic, Yemen, 2017–? 52. Contemporary Measles Outbreaks, United States Glossary Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Joseph P. Byrne holds a doctorate in medieval and early modern European history from Indiana University. He has taught in the honors program and history department at Belmont University since 1988. Jo N. Hays is professor emeritus of history at Loyola University. He received his PhD in history and the history of science from the University of Chicago.