By looking at the work of epidemiologists narrating how they have addressed various outbreaks over the last 100 years, I can learn something about how people respond to contagions that cause epidemics and pandemics.
9 April 2019
If you want an overview of recent outbreaks, read The Pandemic Century by Mark Honigsbaum. Link to my Goodreads Review.The author is an oft-published writer and journalist who writes about infectious diseases. * Spanish Flu of 1918-1919
* Los Angeles Plague of 1923* Parrot Fever Pandemic of 1929-1930
* Legionnaire's Disease in Philadelphia 1976 * AIDS in America & African nations 1980s
* SARS superspreader 2002-2003 * Ebola 2014-2015
* Zika in Brazil and Beyond 2015
1 February 2018
If you want a readable introduction, read Epidemics and Pandemics by Judy Dodge Cummings. Link to my Goodreads Review. Cummings is a former high school teacher who writes nonfiction books aimed at teen readers to be purchased by schools and librarians. * Bubonic Plague of the 14th Century Europe * The Effects of Small Pox in the New World * Yellow Fever in Philadelphia in the 1790s. * Spanish Flu of 1918-1919 * AIDS pandemic of the 1980s. She does explains some key terms and concepts, but this is the least demanding read from this list. I learned some new information.
14 March 2017
If you are interested in the relationship of research and policy, read Deadliest Enemy by Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker Osterholm has been working in the field of epidemiology since the 1980s in positions at the CDC and now as the director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy. He describes some of the outbreaks of the late 20th Century and early 21st Century with an emphasis on how policies affect they way contagions function.
16 February 2016
If you want an analysis of the influence human behavior (psychology and sociology) has on pandemics, read Pandemic by Sonia Shah. Link to my Goodreads Review Shah is a science writer who handles technical detail responsibly. However, she takes a good, hard look at how human beings bring bias in ways that amplify the damage of contagions. She has a lot of experience studying malaria and cholera, but in the majority of the chapters she uses multiple pandemics to illustrate the concept for that chapter such as "Filth" and "Blame."
30 September 2014
If you are interested in metaphor as a tool for philosophical observations, then read On Immunity by Eula Biss.Link to my Goodreads Review
The author is a child of a physician and a poet. She has degrees in nonfiction writing and in creative writer.
Biss writes a nonfiction book that explores how people's feelings about contagions affects how they see the world around them. She adopts some of the methods that Susan Sontag has used in using metaphor as a tool of inquiry. (Sontag has two oft-quoted 1989 book: Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors.
1 September 2013
If you want detail about seven different plagues that is for a lay reader who doesn't mind a lot of detail, read Deadly Outbreaks by Alexandra M. Levitt Link to my Goodreads ReviewLevitt writes each chapter as a medical mystery so that you can struggle along with epidemiologists who are trying to find the cause for a variety of outbreak.
This collection has less overlap in the case studies than the other "plague by plague" overviews described above. It was very suspenseful!
Originally published in 1947
If you want to read a classic work of fiction about a plague, read The Plague by Albert Camus. Link to my Goodreads Review Link to my blog post about The Plague This is a work of nonfiction about French-speaking colonialists living in Algeria during a plague. Many of the authors of the nonfiction books above use quotes from Camus' novel as epigraphs for one or more chapters. Even though it's fiction, many epidemiologists find value in the descriptions the philosopher Camus makes about how people respond to plagues. Related: Coping with Illness Books on the Art of Diagnosis Books about the Death Care Industry Books about People Active in the Dying Process
