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Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
Автор: Jennifer Wright
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A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought them
In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn’t stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon thirty-four more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-seventeenth-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome—a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure. And in turn-of-the-century New York, an Irish cook caused two lethal outbreaks of typhoid fever, a case that transformed her into the notorious Typhoid Mary.
Throughout time, humans have been terrified and fascinated by the diseases history and circumstance have dropped on them. Some of their responses to those outbreaks are almost too strange to believe in hindsight. Get Well Soon delivers the gruesome, morbid details of some of the worst plagues we’ve suffered as a species, as well as stories of the heroic figures who selflessly fought to ease the suffering of their fellow man. With her signature mix of in-depth research and storytelling, and not a little dark humor, Jennifer Wright explores history’s most gripping and deadly outbreaks, and ultimately looks at the surprising ways they’ve shaped history and humanity for almost as long as anyone can remember.
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Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
Автор: Jennifer Wright
Описание
A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues—from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio—and a celebration of the heroes who fought them
In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn’t stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon thirty-four more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-seventeenth-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome—a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure. And in turn-of-the-century New York, an Irish cook caused two lethal outbreaks of typhoid fever, a case that transformed her into the notorious Typhoid Mary.
Throughout time, humans have been terrified and fascinated by the diseases history and circumstance have dropped on them. Some of their responses to those outbreaks are almost too strange to believe in hindsight. Get Well Soon delivers the gruesome, morbid details of some of the worst plagues we’ve suffered as a species, as well as stories of the heroic figures who selflessly fought to ease the suffering of their fellow man. With her signature mix of in-depth research and storytelling, and not a little dark humor, Jennifer Wright explores history’s most gripping and deadly outbreaks, and ultimately looks at the surprising ways they’ve shaped history and humanity for almost as long as anyone can remember.
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This book is an interesting read. The author shares the back story of the various plagues that have decimated various areas of the world. I learned all sorts of tidbits including how to cure the Bubonic Plague by putting pigeons on the sores to draw out the disease. The author did some serious research to put this tome together.
Rating: 4Alrighty, here we go. I received this book through Early Reviewers, meaning that my copy was one that will, likely undergo further edits before it is published. With that in mind, I'm not going to dwell on any of the grammatical/spelling edits that still need to take place. They weren't particularly distracting anyway.There were two elements that I did find distracting: the pictures and, initially, the tone. However, I am never a huge fan of pictures, so I will chalk that up to taste. As for the author's tone, I'm not quite sure how I feel now that I've finished the book. Folks to whom I read portions of the book seemed to enjoy it and since the author wasn't flippant when drilling home her chosen points I have a hard time judging her for it. I suppose it was a device which worked in her favor on some occasions and did not on others.As far as the content is concerned, I found it interesting. Particularly the chapters on the dancing plague, tuberculosis, and syphilis. This is not an in depth discussion of any of these plagues, but it certainly acts as a good introduction, particularly for laymen like me, and I would recommend it in that capacity.
Rating: 4A very well researched an interesting book on the dominant plagues that have dogged and doomed mankind in history. Wright's sense of humor was also entertaining as she kept up a pratter of commentary quips throughout.I had heard of many of these plagues but never understood a great deal of what they were about other than killing a lot of people. So I was educated on that sure enough. I found the most intriguing and scary knowledge was that the great pandemic influenza of 1918 could not only come back but may run rampant again without much we can do to combat it. Now in its dormant stage the thought of that is rather sobering. So despite our miraculous medical system we are not quite out of the woods yet so to speak.She concludes the book on something of a political rant on the AIDS epidemic that she blames primarily those in the Reagan administration for not taking serious and in fact basically ignoring. An informative book overall with the link to history and the many dramas and heroes that stepped forward to conquer some of these, primarily polio.
Rating: 3Get Well Soon by Jennifer Wright looks at many of the plagues and disease epidemics that swept the world in the past. While very enlightening and entertaining in its presentation I found I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I might. I felt the chatty almost blog style of writing a bit annoying and made me question the validity of the content even though it is evident Wright did quite a bit of research.
Rating: 3I received this work through the Early Reviewer program and requested it on the basis of what I felt was a potentially fascinating subject. I was very disappointed with the book, both with respect to its content, but more importantly, the writing style of the author.The tone of the author in this work is unbelievably informal and “snarky”. Given that the subject matter of the work is quite serious, it is jarringly inappropriate. The writing style employed by the author would be appropriate in a comedian’s autobiography or a celebrity tell-all, not a review of the worst plagues in world history. Putting aside the tone and style, the writing is simply not very good in any case, somewhat of a surprise, given the author’s background. Bottom line, it was terribly annoying and made it impossible for me to appreciate the subject matter.In addition, the book contains so many misspellings, punctuation and grammar errors that whoever edited the book should be fired. While this was a “reader’s copy”, and many of the errors may be corrected before final publication, numerous proofs and drafts are approved prior to bound publication. If I were associated with this work, I would be highly embarrassed. The photographs included in the book were of VERY poor quality and were uniformly accompanied by what I can only assume the author thought to be witty and pithy comments. She was wrong. I could find very little of value in this work.
Rating: 2Plagues through the centuries. While this nonfiction book should be informative, I didn't know how funny it would be. No, we probably shouldn't laugh at plagues. Unless you have a rather flippant and dark sense of humor, which the author apparently does and which I appreciate.This book is very informative but never dull. I knew about all the plagues except Encephalitis Lethartica, but I learned details I would never have known otherwise. In the introduction, the author writes:“...my interest lies more with the kind of plague where you break out in sores all over your body and countless people you know and love die, rapidly, within a few months of each other, in the prime of their lives. And there is nothing you can do, and everyone is dead, and everything is death, and all of earth seems to be a vast wasteland of corpses, and, wait, here, allow me to show you some absolutely horrific pictures.”How can you not love that?The author has a decidedly liberal bent, which I'm just fine with. It is obvious that she is beyond annoyed at the special snowflakes who won't vaccinate their children because of unfactual rumors, and therefore put others at risk. She lists our (as in humanity's) successes as well as failures. Despite the flippancy, the author is both sympathetic and empathetic, and this shows through as well. “Do not do the same stupid stuff people did before! We know what works and what doesn't! Be smarter, please, please, be smarter, be kinder, be kinder and smarter, I am begging you.”And in the epilogue:“When we fight plagues, not each other, we will not only defeat diseases but preserve our humanity in the process.”I really love this book.
Rating: 5I found this book to be fairly interesting and rather entertaining. The author's humor and personal opinions, while amusing, occasionally got in the way at times. The writing seemed more suited to amusing blog posts and articles on humor sites. I mostly enjoyed it, though, and I would recommend it to people who might want a light-hearted take on a serious subject.
Rating: 3'Get Well Soon' by Jennifer Wright is a brief history of the world's plagues and humanities attempts to deal with them, through the onset of 12 plagues and 1 badly handled medical procedure. Wright attempts to add humor to a very dark subject and show how mankind has attempted to handle these biological disasters, through politics, medicine, folklore and it's own humanity. Like many of the other reviewers, I really wanted to enjoy this book. I enjoy the subjects of history and medicine, and looked forward to a book that focused on both. Unfortunately, I was disappointed with the results. Wright hits on a few well known diseases such as Bubonic plague, small pox and tuberculosis; as well as a few lesser known such as the Antonine plague, dancing plague and Encephalitis Lethargica. A positive point of this book, for me, was the fact that I learned about a couple diseases I was not familiar with and a little more about some that I was. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to make this a particularly good read. I got the impression from the start, that Wright was having trouble deciding whether this should be a study of interesting medical issues in history, society's ability or inability to positively help it's most afflicted, or both. Unfortunately, in attempting to address all of this, it was somewhat disjointed, lacking in any real depth, and unable to latch onto my interest and keep it through to the end. To add to the issues, Wright's use of humor was not especially successful, and she seemed more interested in trying to use the book as a soapbox for her own social and political beliefs, although even this was a bit disjointed at times. With a couple isolated instances, like Marcus Aurelius's approach to the Antonine plague, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's handling of Polio; Wright seems to feel that politicians have added to the devastation caused by these diseases either by ignoring them, or inappropriate actions. She also seems to feel that society has been either unable or unwilling to assist those in greatest need, unless they have a strong leader who can show them the way. Unfortunately, in the end, I just wasn't sure what I was supposed to take away from the book. As a last, possibly unintended, slap in the face to her readers, Wright includes a section of photographs in the final section, that shows the manifestation of these diseases on it's victims. The section is called "Absolutely Horrific Pictures of the Effects of the Diseases (for Those Who Want Them)". I wasn't sure if Wright had some type of historical or medical background. There were just parts of the book that seemed incomplete, even though it isn't intended as an exhaustive study. For instance, Wright felt it necessary to include the lobotomy in a book about historical plagues. After blasting the practice of lobotomies (rightly or wrongly), and Walter Freeman's questionable approach to them, she never pointed out that this practice is still carried out. The Stereotactic Cingulotomy and the Lobectomy are both very precise, very advanced, descendants of the old style lobotomy. Wright's previous book, 'It Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Break-Ups in History', also led me to believe medical history was not something Wright had specialized education in, or experience with. If you have read books by Richard Preston or Laurie Garrett, you will be greatly disappointed by 'Get Well Soon'. I would advise people interested in history and medical science read books by these authors, or even those who Wright mentions in her sources. Unfortunately, I got the impression that the extent of the research Wright did was reading books by other authors and adding her own commentary to them. I'm sorry to say I can't recommend this title to others.
Rating: 2The book was well-written, especially considering the difficult subject matter. Some of humanity's earliest mass outbreaks of diseases I was not familiar with, so those were educational. Others I did not realize lingered so long. I certainly was not aware of the more ridiculous curative attempts!The author did have an idiosyncratic style of writing, but she is not Mary Roach (as the reviewer I read wrote), and it does neither of them credit to compare them. True, they are both women writing in an engaging way about science. But the same can be said of Phyllis George and Agatha Christie of their genre.I was quite surprised to hear (this was an audible.com book. Buy a print version! The narration was not pleasant), "...in Fox's[ Book of Miracles]..." with no other lead-in or explanation. George Fox was a principle founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), ca 1650.To be clear about Zackman's narration, I think it was a production issue. Suddenly her voice would go flat as do nasal, right in the middle of a sentence. Sometimes it seemed as that quality was indicative of a quotation, but not always.
Rating: 5I enjoy reading about medical mysteries, true and fiction, but I was very disappointed with this book. I learned very little from it, and it just rambled and rambled on. It was meant to be a humorous take on these historical illnesses, but it just came off as snarky and bitter. I knew it was going to be a problem when in the first part of the book the author dropped a rude comment about a political figure. It had absolutely nothing to do with the book, and just seemed that its purpose was just to be rude.
Rating: 1I found this book thoroughly enjoyable. Wright manages to give gritty, historically factual details about some of the world's worst plagues while maintaining a sense of humor - a feat in itself. I would compare this favorably with works by Mary Roach ("Stiff"; "Gulp").
Rating: 4Jennifer Wright traces 14 major plagues throughout history. Beginning with Antonine Plague and ending with AIDS she covers the spread, effect, cause and cure, of each of these plagues. With a great sense of humor she makes this a good read. Her writing style is much like Mary Roach which makes tough subjects easier to read and learn. She does not gloss over the effects of these diseases and her research is sound. She also gives credit to strong leaders in the time of peril such as Antonio of the Roman empire and FDR and Eisenhower with polio. Recommended also for young adult collections. Young people need to understand the history and impact of of disease on other events in history. Serious subject but an easy to read and enjoy book that will leave you much to think about. Due for release in Feb. 2017
Rating: 4Not everyone enjoys books about the history of plagues. I don't know why.
Well, all right, I do know. But I've always found them fascinating.
This is an overview of some of the greatest plagues in the recorded history of the world, starting with the Antonine plague in Rome under Marcus Aurelius, and ending with AIDS. What Wright is focused on is less the medical details than the way both people generally and government and social leadership responded.
Plagues are always terrifying, and in the absence of effective medical treatment, the natural human response is fear. Believing that disease was spread by miasma, i.e., bad-smelling air, wholly ineffective and sometimes really damaging methods are used in useless efforts to stop it.
What Wright finds is that strong leadership, whether pragmatic or compassionate, makes a huge difference. Marcus Aurelius subsidized the cost of funerals, so that people could dispose of their family members with dignity--and so that bodies didn't pile up in the streets, spreading both panic and more disease. In contrast, in response to the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s, the Reagan administration laughed at it when they didn't completely ignore it. They blamed the victims, and weren't interested in seriously funding the search for the infectious agent that caused it. Of course, this was in the late 20th century, and unlike during the Roman Empire, we had far more developed ways of dealing with the dead whose families either couldn't afford, or refused to bury them. Yet many of the sick found themselves rejected by their families, blocked from attending school, shunned by the people who should have helped them. Elected politicians suggested AIDS sufferers should be quarantined in camps, or even killed.
And this is not just a difference between ancient Rome and modern America. Both patterns of response have been shown in different places at different times. Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped lead, even in the midst of depression and war, huge advances in the care of polio patients and in research into polio. Dwight Eisenhower, when the Salk vaccine was developed, took immediate steps to ensure no child would miss out on being vaccinated because their families couldn't afford it. I remember, as a young child, standing in a school gymnasium to line up for the free distribution of the polio vaccine. In the 19th century, the then Kingdom of Hawaii quarantined leprosy patients in a colony without even the most basic social and infrastructure supports, and conditions were horrific until the arrival of a Belgian Roman Catholic missionary, Father Damian.
In the course of this examination of the history of plagues, Wright gives us stories that are terrifying, heartwarming, and more often than you might expect, funny. It's interesting, enlightening, and compelling.
Highly recommended.
Rating: 5Well, all right, I do know. But I've always found them fascinating.
This is an overview of some of the greatest plagues in the recorded history of the world, starting with the Antonine plague in Rome under Marcus Aurelius, and ending with AIDS. What Wright is focused on is less the medical details than the way both people generally and government and social leadership responded.
Plagues are always terrifying, and in the absence of effective medical treatment, the natural human response is fear. Believing that disease was spread by miasma, i.e., bad-smelling air, wholly ineffective and sometimes really damaging methods are used in useless efforts to stop it.
What Wright finds is that strong leadership, whether pragmatic or compassionate, makes a huge difference. Marcus Aurelius subsidized the cost of funerals, so that people could dispose of their family members with dignity--and so that bodies didn't pile up in the streets, spreading both panic and more disease. In contrast, in response to the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s, the Reagan administration laughed at it when they didn't completely ignore it. They blamed the victims, and weren't interested in seriously funding the search for the infectious agent that caused it. Of course, this was in the late 20th century, and unlike during the Roman Empire, we had far more developed ways of dealing with the dead whose families either couldn't afford, or refused to bury them. Yet many of the sick found themselves rejected by their families, blocked from attending school, shunned by the people who should have helped them. Elected politicians suggested AIDS sufferers should be quarantined in camps, or even killed.
And this is not just a difference between ancient Rome and modern America. Both patterns of response have been shown in different places at different times. Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped lead, even in the midst of depression and war, huge advances in the care of polio patients and in research into polio. Dwight Eisenhower, when the Salk vaccine was developed, took immediate steps to ensure no child would miss out on being vaccinated because their families couldn't afford it. I remember, as a young child, standing in a school gymnasium to line up for the free distribution of the polio vaccine. In the 19th century, the then Kingdom of Hawaii quarantined leprosy patients in a colony without even the most basic social and infrastructure supports, and conditions were horrific until the arrival of a Belgian Roman Catholic missionary, Father Damian.
In the course of this examination of the history of plagues, Wright gives us stories that are terrifying, heartwarming, and more often than you might expect, funny. It's interesting, enlightening, and compelling.
Highly recommended.
I thought the premise for this book sounded really interesting. However, I got about 150 pages into it, and found that it just was not holding my interest. While the author's commentary was humorous at times, for the most part I didn't care for it. Also, I realize that this was an Advance Reading Copy, but truly, it was the worst-edited ARC I've ever read - and I've read more than 100. It was so poorly edited that it was distracting - sentences didn't make sense, words were missing. Maybe that had something to do with my disinclination to continue reading. Bottom line: I have too many books on my TBR list to continue reading one that doesn't hold my interest.
Rating: 2Sort of breezy, given the subject matter, but did include some plagues I hadn’t heard of, such as the Roman plague and the dancing plague of middle ages Germany, as well as a kind of encephalitis that makes people essentially sleep all the time/lack all independent will, and which disappeared for reasons that don’t seem to be very clear. Not very reassuring. Ends with an epilogue on AIDS and what not to do in an epidemic (quarantine people, fail to keep order and to clean the streets).
Rating: 3This is a well researched and informative non-fiction book whose author's inserts herself throughout. At first this very much irritated me but as I proceeded I acclimated to her humor and personal comments. The descriptions of the plagues, their spread, and the efforts, effective and not, to combat them was illuminating.
Rating: 4A quirky, delightful book about how microbes can change the world and how societal responses to wide-spread illness can make the medical and social challenges that arise in the face of them much better or much worse. While Wright's approach is humorous and irreverent, she never loses sight of the seriousness of the plagues or the value of kindness and compassion.
Rating: 5Reading a book on plagues may not be everyone's idea of a pleasurable way to spend their reading time, but that is exactly what I did. While I can't say it was pleasurable, it was certainly intriguing and informative. Plagues, many times changed the course of history, were used in our nursery rhymes , illnesses, like tuberculosis and EL were prevalent in art and literature. Many artists painted pictures of women dying from consumption, painting them as ethereal and haunting, thought beautiful at the time. Dying of consumption as it was known then was anything but beautiful. The book provides the paths of the diseases, how they were handled at the time, those who fought them, finding cures if possible and what was going on in the world at the time and how circumstances were affected. Loved the set up of this book, each chapter its own illness. She saves the mishandling of the AIDS epidemic for the epilogue, how this was mishandled by the Reagan administration and how so many turned their backs on those dying of this disease.The author attempts to lighten up the gruesome subject matter by inserting pithy comments and commentary. Sometimes these worked for me and I found them mildly humorous, at other times I felt they could have been left out. Actually think the book would have been improved if there would have been less of these. So I am rating this four stars for the well researched information contained within, but making this 3.5 for my persona rating. Definitely worth reading though, I think it is hubris on our part to think that because we have better medicines now, that a plague or epidemic will not strike. Especially since we are being warned about bacteria resistant antibiotics. I was also very surprised to find out that Zimbabwe and fourteen other nations have better inoculation rates against measles, now that many parents are refusing to immunize their children. So scary.ARC from publisher and librarything.
Rating: 4Can a book about diseases be utterly charming and often hilarious? It turns out that if the author is Jennifer Wright, the answer is yes.This compilation of short histories of some of the worst plagues in history is punctuated (literally) by lots of italics, exclamation points, jokes, contemporary references, sarcasm, and humorous epigraphs before each chapter. But the subject matter is deadly.Topics include the Bubonic plague, smallpox, polio, the great influenza epidemic of 1918, and the “man-made” plague of lobotomies, inter alia.Wright also includes information on how these diseases impacted history. For example, it is estimated that smallpox killed around 90 percent of the native people of the Americas, clearing the path for the great land grab by Europeans.It is not so well known that during World War I, forty thousand American soldiers were killed by what was called the “Spanish flu” (she explains how it got this name). For perspective, she points out, “that’s only seven thousand fewer American soldiers than were killed in combat in Vietnam.” In one month alone, October of 1918, 195,000 people died of the Spanish flu. It was the deadliest month in U.S. history. Why did it get so bad so fast? She explains that too. She comes back several times in her book to the subject of vaccination, stating:“Vaccination is one of the best things that has happened to civilization. Empires toppled like sandcastles in the wake of diseases we do not give a second thought to today.”She addresses current fears about vaccines, which she considers to be not only scientifically baseless but dangerous - explaining:“. . . some vaccines contain an extremely diluted amount of formaldehyde, which sounds scary, as formaldehyde in large doses is linked to cancer. However, formaldehyde also occurs naturally in your body and helps you metabolize food. The amount you would find in a vaccine. . . [is less than you would find in an average apple.]”It is shocking to learn that Zimbabwe now has a higher immunization rate for one-year-olds against measles than the United States does. So do 112 other countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The U.S. is down to 91 percent vaccination rate for measles, which, according to the WHO, makes us much more vulnerable to outbreaks:“Refusing to vaccinate puts at risk not just your children but the people in our communities who most require our protection.”But does a “cure” ever cause more harm than good? She does explore when that happens in a chapter on lobotomies, which are intentional partial destructions of the brain, and “the scariest procedure that you never want performed.” Approximately 40,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States between the 1930s and the 1970s. As Wrights avers, “. . . this was one of the darkest chapters in American medical history.”She ends with the AIDS crisis, lamenting that we did not learn the lessons of history in fighting it, in particular that the issue of “morals” or “character” has nothing to do with the cause of diseases. She implores us to become wiser after “the horrible mismanagement of the AIDS crisis": “We know what works and what doesn’t! Be smarter, please, please, be smarter, be kinder, be kinder and smarter, I am begging you.”Evaluation: This book is informative and lively, and combines laugh-out-loud moments with important messages. It is an entertaining way to learn a part of history often neglected but more consequential to the rise and fall of civilizations than you would expect.
Rating: 4This was an interesting book about plagues , diseases and medical procedures throughout time and what was done by medical personnel throughout time to combat the maladies. The book was well researched and included cultural treatment of the disease's victims throughout time. However, the editorial comments made throughout the book, though humorous, were a little distracting. Despite this, I would recommend this book for its information and cultural history.
Rating: 3A book on plagues through the ages seems like it would, by its very nature, be incredibly depressing (and/or dry), but Jennifer Wright made every chapter absolutely fascinating, and her tone is such that I found myself laughing on multiple occasions. She never mocks the victims of the plagues, but she does poke at human foibles and failings, as well as highlighting the amazing things that people did when confronted with these various diseases. I really enjoyed the audio, and I am very glad to have modern medicine, clean water, and a knowledge that neither onions nor crushed emeralds are effective cures for what ails you.
Rating: 4Initially I was skeptical about this one due to the author's ill-supported claims that the Antonine Plague caused the Roman Empire to fall (“was a very significant contributor to the decline” would have made me less uncomfortable), but, as it turned out, that first chapter was the only one where her “history” struck me as noticeably iffy. Telling the stories of various plagues throughout history, Wright explores each plague (she includes fourteen of them) from the level of bacteria to that of governmental response. She tells of individual sufferers, heroic (and not-so-heroic) doctors, politicians, and public health officials, describing how each plague destroyed lives, and how the responses of physicians and bureaucrats helped or hindered the treatment of the disease. She reminds readers frequently of the importance of compassion in dealing with victims of plagues, occasionally to the point of excessive preachiness, but mostly, given the history of human responses to contagious diseases, very reasonably. As she notes repeatedly, blaming the victims is never an effective response to illness. Even in the case of a Typhoid Mary, who, she agrees, showed monstrous irresponsibility in her disregard for disease control, public health officials would have behaved far more usefully if they had provided her with training for a new career rather than simply releasing her back on an unsuspecting public with nothing but her cooking skills with which to support herself.Wright certainly doesn't gloss over the horrors of the plagues she chronicles, but where there are heroes – Father Damiens and Jonas Salks – she dwells on them. Among the most horrific chapters were those on lobotomies (the only “non-disease” plague she includes) and AIDS, where the extent of the suffering was, to an inexcusable extent, caused by the heartlessness of people who truly should have known better, and, conversely, the most inspiring was that on polio, where human intelligence, decency, and public spiritedness combined to defeat a devastating disease. Wright finishes on a note of optimism, convinced that the better angels of our nature will generally triumph over fear and narrow-mindedness. While her efforts at humor occasionally fall flat and I could have done with fewer pop culture references, this was mostly enjoyable and surprisingly uplifting.
Rating: 4Wow. Just, wow. I think this book officially marks the first time I've checked out a book from the library entirely on a whim from the title, and then ended up buying the book while reading it. This is a fascinating, entertaining, and highly educational account, all at the same time. People who know me know I'm somewhat picky about my nonfiction. I LOVE learning new stuff, but can't stand spending voluntary time on anything dry or not engaging. But, dang, was this book a winner of a pick. Each chapter is dedicated to a different historical plague, detailing the illness, the toll it took, and the efforts taken to combat it, all in a casual narrative style. It definitely feels more like being told a story at the dinner table (albeit a somewhat disturbing one) than exploring an academic work, while also highlighting several important figures that you won't have heard of who worked tirelessly in the often thankless work of saving lives during times when medical knowledge or public views might well consist of little more than a conviction that the ill were cursed or somehow deserving. This is thus not just a trip through the history of the world's great plagues, but also a commentary on the treatment of the sick and dying, an overview of both our ignorance and our compassion, and a condemnation of human apathy and disregard. Overall, this is definitely an author who I will now be watching, and I look forward to hunting down her other works.
Rating: 5Very interesting book! My only disappointment is that we didn’t get much description of the diseases but to be fair that wasn’t really the purpose of the book.
Rating: 4The author’s labeling of herpes as a nondeadly skin disease is irresponsible. I am a perinatal nurse and have seen newborns die of herpetic encephalitis transmitted in utero even when the mother was not aware she had herpes.
Rating: 3A sense of humor takes the ugly out of the horrible plagues.
Rating: 5A fine piece of medical history that, from some of the reviews I've read, is obscured by reaction to its casual, first-person, snarky presentation. As a 72-year-old youngster, let me say that I get this book in the way that you don't. This is a book that you should give to your teenager to tell them about things that they will never be taught in school About heroism, about stupidity, about negligence, about victory and defeat. It may not be written in a style that you're comfortable with, but it's one that many can relate to.
Rating: 5THIS WAS SO GOOD. I've always had an in interest in plagues and reading about so when I saw this book (I believe it was a nominee for the Goodreads Choice Awards one year?) it was like all of my dreams had come true. I learned so much while reading this and I found new topics that I did not expect to find interesting super intriguing and things that I thought would be more interesting less than I thought they would be. If that sentence is even comprehend-able. 90% of the time I was reading this, I was stopping every few pages to tell my dad's girlfriend about some other insane fact or statistic. It was so fun and I had so much fun talking about it to multiple people in my life. I really enjoyed the humor and tone of the book. I highlighted SO MUCH while I was reading, some of it being insane facts and some of it just being funny things from the author. I did read this as on ebook on Scribd so I don't think it's possible to share my highlights like with a Kindle book which is sad. In addition to the humor, the author made so many valid points on how people with diseased are just people and deserve to be treated as such and not outcast as monsters. One of my favorite quotes that really capsulated something I never even thought of prior to this is "It's easy to forgot that people from the past weren't the two-dimensional black-and-white photos or line drawings you might encounter in some dry textbooks. They weren't just gray-faced guys in top hats. They were living, breathing, joking, burping people, who could be happy or sad, funny, or boring, cool or the lamest people you ever met in your life. They had no idea they were living in the past. They all thought they were living in the present." The author also urged readers to not just brush off these ideals of "Oh how insane and stupid people were back then" and instead to consider how people actually thought in those times, when the medical system we have today didn't exist. That being said, there were some INSANE things that people did or believed. One of my favorites was the people who thought the spirit of the illness could fly out a sick person's eyes and infect anyone who made eye contact with them. I also really enjoyed learning more about the plague doctor getups and what went into the masks and how they actually did serve a purpose other than just looking generally terrifying. My favorite chapters were surprisingly on syphilis and lobotomies. I've always known lobotomies are nuts but I had no idea syphilis had such an insane past and how severe it could really get without treatment. It's wild how people died of syphilis all because it was an STD and NO ONE WOULD TALK ABOUT IT. Shout out to the No-Nose Club. I learned about things I had never even heard of such as cholera and encephalitis lethargica and I learned about things I knew of but didn't know any details about like polio or the Spanish flu. I also learned some things I thought I knew, but were myths for other reasons, like how people who have leprosy's limbs don't just fall off for no reason. I learned so much and I really enjoyed my time with this book. I was never big into nonfiction prior to this but this really opened my eyes to just how fun it is to learn again when you're not doing it for a grade or for anyone else.
Rating: 4Entertaining overview of historic plagues.Regardless of how much general medical knowledge history you may know there is bound to be something here that you've never heard before and that will surprise or even shock you.The inclusion of lobotomies as a "plague", albeit a human created one, was a stretch. But the grotesque story of Walter J. Freeman lobotomizing thousands of hapless patients across America in the 1940's and 1950's certainly explains why it was included.Mass hysteria plagues such as the Dancing Plague of 1518 also did not seem to qualify as genuine medical plague history, but were fascinating none the less.I listened to the Audiobook edition narrated by Gabra Zackman and her performance alone earned an extra star or two, putting this solidly as a 5 out of 5.
Rating: 5This is the most fun book you will ever read about deadly disease.
Rating: 5