Plagues and Epidemics: Infected Spaces Past and Present (Wenner-Gren International Symposium Series) - Tapa dura

Interesting collection of nineteen essays ... admirably supported by cited literature that is largely scholarly but also includes articles in the popular press. J. Cooper, The Biologist

Until recently, plagues were thought to belong in the ancient past. Now
there are deep worries about global pandemics. This book presents views
from anthropology about this much publicized and complex
problem.
The authors take us to places where epidemics are
erupting, waning, or gone, and to other places where they have not yet
arrived, but where a frightening story line is already in place. They
explore public health bureaucracies and political arenas where the power
lies to make decisions about what is, and is not, an epidemic. They
look back into global history to uncover disease trends and look ahead
to a future of expanding plagues within the context of climate
change.
The chapters are written from a range of perspectives,
from the science of modeling epidemics to the social science of
understanding them. Patterns emerge when people are engulfed by diseases
labeled as epidemics but which have the hallmarks of plague. There are
cycles of shame and blame, stigma, isolation of the sick, fear of
contagion, and end-of-the-world scenarios. Plague, it would seem, is
still among us.