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The Princeton Economic History of the Western World #85
Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History
How pathogenic microbes have been an intimate part of human history from the beginning--and how our deadliest germs and biggest pandemics are the product of our success as a species
Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity's uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues all around us, in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. He also tells the story of humanity's escape from infectious disease--a triumph that makes life as we know it possible, yet destabilizes the environment and fosters new diseases.
Panoramic in scope, Plagues upon the Earth traces role of disease in the transition to farming, the spread of cities, the advance of transportation, and the stupendous increase in human numbers. Harper offers a new interpretation of humanity's path to control over infectious disease--one where rising evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence between societies. The book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent--and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself.
Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in perspective, Plagues upon the Earth tells the story of how we got here as a species, and it may help us decide where we want to go.
Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity's uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues all around us, in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. He also tells the story of humanity's escape from infectious disease--a triumph that makes life as we know it possible, yet destabilizes the environment and fosters new diseases.
Panoramic in scope, Plagues upon the Earth traces role of disease in the transition to farming, the spread of cities, the advance of transportation, and the stupendous increase in human numbers. Harper offers a new interpretation of humanity's path to control over infectious disease--one where rising evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence between societies. The book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent--and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself.
Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in perspective, Plagues upon the Earth tells the story of how we got here as a species, and it may help us decide where we want to go.
704 pages, Hardcover
First published October 12, 2021
About the author
Kyle Harper
11 books69 followersProfessor of Classics and Letters and Senior Vice President and Provost at the University of Oklahoma. His research topics are the social and economic history of the Roman Empire and the early middle ages, and the environmental and population history of the first millennium, exploring the impact of climate change and disease on the history of civilization.
from http://www.ou.edu/flourish/about/team...
from http://www.ou.edu/flourish/about/team...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
October 14, 2022
It is hard for us in the modern world to understand the burden of infectious disease in the past. Until the 20th century most humans died of infectious disease. Kyle Harper’s book tells the story of how infectious pathogens have affected human history. He also highlights that humanity’s victory over the last century or so is, as we well know, incomplete.
The author explains that there are 5 broad types of pathogen that infect humans - viruses, bacteria, protozoan parasites, helminths (i.e., parasitic worms) and fungi. Having mentioned fungi, the book doesn’t discuss them further, as fungal infections of humans are relatively minor.
It’s often argued that most of our diseases began with the domestication of animals, and with animal diseases that jumped to humans. However some major diseases had adapted to humans well before this. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors did not always live in a disease-free environment, particularly if they lived in tropical regions. Malaria took a heavy toll, and they were pervasively infected with worms, so that schistosomiasis (bilharzia) has been a deadly disease of humans across millennia.
One of the main points of the book is to highlight that evolutionary selection pressure has worked to produce organisms adapted to the new ecologies created by humans in the last 10,000 years, and that this process continues today. The development of agriculture meant that, for the first time, humans lived amidst their own excrement, as well as of course the excrement of animals. This provided opportunities for organisms that infected humans via the faecal-oral route, whilst the crowding of humans together in large numbers also benefited agents that passed via the respiratory route. The author comments that, whilst diarrhoeal disease and dysentery lack the notoriety of some other diseases, they were a huge source of suffering over most of human history. Dr Benjamin Rush has left us a distressing description of the agonising deaths of infants from diarrhoeal disease, at a time when doctors were basically helpless to combat it.
In terms of notoriety, probably no disease can equal bubonic plague, which in the 1340s may have killed half of Europe’s population. Half! The plague repeatedly flared up during the following centuries. Meanwhile Darwinian selection kept throwing up new or variant diseases. Typhus is thought to have evolved in the 16th century. At about the same time Smallpox seems to have become much more virulent than previously, becoming the dread disease that killed hundreds of millions in the succeeding centuries. The author discusses the demographic collapse of Native Americans following the Columbian Exchange, and how this assisted the European takeover. The reverse was true in the case of tropical Africa, which had the world’s most hostile disease environment. Reaching adulthood in tropical Africa meant you had come through an intense Darwinian struggle, and Europeans who ventured to the coast died in droves.
From the 18th century onwards we began to see “the great escape”, when humanity finally began to make progress in the fight against infectious disease. It should be noted though, that the 19th century also saw “the great divergence”. Whilst mortality fell in Europe and North America, life expectancy remained stagnant or even decreased in other parts of the world, as modernity promoted the spread of disease. It was not until the 20th century that global health started to coalesce again. As the author says, the population explosion that the world has seen in the last two centuries did not come about because we started breeding like rabbits, but because we stopped dying like flies. Even during this time Darwinian selection continued to throw up new responses, such as TB, polio, HIV and of course coronaviruses. More will continue to emerge.
An ambitious project this. Personally, I think the author has pulled it off. I found this a tremendously informative read.
The author explains that there are 5 broad types of pathogen that infect humans - viruses, bacteria, protozoan parasites, helminths (i.e., parasitic worms) and fungi. Having mentioned fungi, the book doesn’t discuss them further, as fungal infections of humans are relatively minor.
It’s often argued that most of our diseases began with the domestication of animals, and with animal diseases that jumped to humans. However some major diseases had adapted to humans well before this. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors did not always live in a disease-free environment, particularly if they lived in tropical regions. Malaria took a heavy toll, and they were pervasively infected with worms, so that schistosomiasis (bilharzia) has been a deadly disease of humans across millennia.
One of the main points of the book is to highlight that evolutionary selection pressure has worked to produce organisms adapted to the new ecologies created by humans in the last 10,000 years, and that this process continues today. The development of agriculture meant that, for the first time, humans lived amidst their own excrement, as well as of course the excrement of animals. This provided opportunities for organisms that infected humans via the faecal-oral route, whilst the crowding of humans together in large numbers also benefited agents that passed via the respiratory route. The author comments that, whilst diarrhoeal disease and dysentery lack the notoriety of some other diseases, they were a huge source of suffering over most of human history. Dr Benjamin Rush has left us a distressing description of the agonising deaths of infants from diarrhoeal disease, at a time when doctors were basically helpless to combat it.
In terms of notoriety, probably no disease can equal bubonic plague, which in the 1340s may have killed half of Europe’s population. Half! The plague repeatedly flared up during the following centuries. Meanwhile Darwinian selection kept throwing up new or variant diseases. Typhus is thought to have evolved in the 16th century. At about the same time Smallpox seems to have become much more virulent than previously, becoming the dread disease that killed hundreds of millions in the succeeding centuries. The author discusses the demographic collapse of Native Americans following the Columbian Exchange, and how this assisted the European takeover. The reverse was true in the case of tropical Africa, which had the world’s most hostile disease environment. Reaching adulthood in tropical Africa meant you had come through an intense Darwinian struggle, and Europeans who ventured to the coast died in droves.
From the 18th century onwards we began to see “the great escape”, when humanity finally began to make progress in the fight against infectious disease. It should be noted though, that the 19th century also saw “the great divergence”. Whilst mortality fell in Europe and North America, life expectancy remained stagnant or even decreased in other parts of the world, as modernity promoted the spread of disease. It was not until the 20th century that global health started to coalesce again. As the author says, the population explosion that the world has seen in the last two centuries did not come about because we started breeding like rabbits, but because we stopped dying like flies. Even during this time Darwinian selection continued to throw up new responses, such as TB, polio, HIV and of course coronaviruses. More will continue to emerge.
An ambitious project this. Personally, I think the author has pulled it off. I found this a tremendously informative read.
April 1, 2024
I have no intention of writing too much about this excellent book. GR friend Ian has written an outstanding review that I commend to anyone that has yet to read it.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is one of two audiobooks I have listened to on this subject recently, the other being Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History by Jonathan Kennedy.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
As fascinating as that was, Harpers is superior in my opinion.
One comment I will make from a discussion from this audiobook is that the common fly that occasionally gets past the screens of my abode is now ruthlessly hunted down.
Recommended to those with an interest in the subject.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is one of two audiobooks I have listened to on this subject recently, the other being Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History by Jonathan Kennedy.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
As fascinating as that was, Harpers is superior in my opinion.
One comment I will make from a discussion from this audiobook is that the common fly that occasionally gets past the screens of my abode is now ruthlessly hunted down.
Recommended to those with an interest in the subject.
September 11, 2023
If you want confirmation of why this is a good day and age to live in, read this book. It’s a fairly comprehensive take on our contagious diseases, and how they have spread and mutated through the aeons. It’s not until recently that we have had the first true inclination of what actually makes us sick - microbes and viruses. You will learn about the difference between typhus and typhoid fever and why “cow” (vacca) is indicated in the word “vaccination”. Enjoy! 🦠
December 20, 2021
A magnificent environmental history of infectious disease, Plagues Upon the Earth stands out for its nuance and readability. See my full review at https://inquisitivebiologist.com/2021...
April 8, 2022
Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History is a history of infectious disease, or the co-evolution of microspotic pathogens and the human race. Organised in chronological order. Starting from the beginning of homo sapiens to the current Covid 19 pandemic. It is a history of plagues and pandemics, their roles in the rise and fall of dynasties, and how they shaped the trajectory of human history. It is also a history of progress in medical science and public health management. Comprehensive. The book covers the entire globe, not Eurasian centric.
The topic makes me grateful for living in the modern age. The author argues against population growth anxiety. Modern history has proved that the mortality rate decline in a society always triggers birth rate decline within 2 to 3 generations. This is too simple and he fails to consider the importance of women’s equal rights movement in the population equation.
The topic makes me grateful for living in the modern age. The author argues against population growth anxiety. Modern history has proved that the mortality rate decline in a society always triggers birth rate decline within 2 to 3 generations. This is too simple and he fails to consider the importance of women’s equal rights movement in the population equation.
September 25, 2022
I have such conflicted feelings about this book. It contains amazing flashes of wonderful insights on how disease has shaped the history of the world. But it also contains endless pages of minutia laying out statistics and disease progression through the ages.
I knew malaria was a bad thing, but I never fully appreciated just how insidious it can be. It is the Machiavelli of maladies. After reading this book I finally understand exactly how it develops, who it victimizes and why it is such a tough disease to fight. The book was full of these kinds of great insights. The author explains things plainly and simply so that even the non-scientists among us clearly understand.
I really learned a lot about how these diseases developed, and the powerful role they have played in shaping humanity. I really loved this part of the book.
However, once the author had flashed these incredible insights, then the book would regress into a dive deep about how the disease progressed through the southern valleys of Bulgaria amongst left-handed women who like to bathe on Thursdays. The minutia he would lay out was just agonizing.
I wish he had written a book that was shorter. This huge tomb reads a bit more like a textbook than a popular non-fiction book. It was in desperate need of a good editor.
If you have a strong stomach for mindless detail, I would definitely recommend suffering through this book. The insights are absolutely amazing. There is definitely a pony inside this book, but you’re going to have to shovel a lot to find it.
I knew malaria was a bad thing, but I never fully appreciated just how insidious it can be. It is the Machiavelli of maladies. After reading this book I finally understand exactly how it develops, who it victimizes and why it is such a tough disease to fight. The book was full of these kinds of great insights. The author explains things plainly and simply so that even the non-scientists among us clearly understand.
I really learned a lot about how these diseases developed, and the powerful role they have played in shaping humanity. I really loved this part of the book.
However, once the author had flashed these incredible insights, then the book would regress into a dive deep about how the disease progressed through the southern valleys of Bulgaria amongst left-handed women who like to bathe on Thursdays. The minutia he would lay out was just agonizing.
I wish he had written a book that was shorter. This huge tomb reads a bit more like a textbook than a popular non-fiction book. It was in desperate need of a good editor.
If you have a strong stomach for mindless detail, I would definitely recommend suffering through this book. The insights are absolutely amazing. There is definitely a pony inside this book, but you’re going to have to shovel a lot to find it.
March 10, 2024
Solid 4.5 - Very long but very good. An under-discussed lens on history. Yeah, I quite liked it.
September 26, 2022
Well up to the high standard set by his preceding book on the fall of Rome, this time Professor Harper expands his focus to the effect disease (one of the topics of his last book) has had on the entirety of human history. Fluently written, endlessly interesting.
March 3, 2022
Explores the interactions of various disease and parasites and humans. Explains why and how our unique pathogens are intertwined with our genetic history.
Overall, this was a little dry. Less time was spent on some disease than I would have expected. While it touches on disease world wide, many of the most in depth portions were European/North American centric.
Overall, this was a little dry. Less time was spent on some disease than I would have expected. While it touches on disease world wide, many of the most in depth portions were European/North American centric.
October 28, 2021
About a generation ago the eminent biologist from Harvard E.O. Wilson wrote a book titled “Consilience.” This book written by Kyle Harper is a wickedly wonderful journey built upon the platform of Wilson. I could hardy put it down. Instructive, engaging, interesting in so many ways. Superb.
January 1, 2024
DNF. Poorly written, repetitive with broad sweeping statements and little evidence behind them, jumping across five centuries and several continents in single sentences. Very disappointing
February 12, 2022
Dense, deep dive into humanity's history with pathogens. Good discussion on how human activity (from taming fire to adopting agriculture to building today's megacities and international trading networks) has repeatedly exposed people to new microbes and parasites.
The suffering caused by the major infectious killers of the past (plague, smallpox, typhus, cholera, and dozens of others) was horrific. We've beaten back many of the worst diseases with vaccines, antibiotics, and modern sanitation. But microbes never stop evolving. And with almost 8 billion people on Earth, any virus that manages to hack the human immune system will have an enormous field to exploit.
The suffering caused by the major infectious killers of the past (plague, smallpox, typhus, cholera, and dozens of others) was horrific. We've beaten back many of the worst diseases with vaccines, antibiotics, and modern sanitation. But microbes never stop evolving. And with almost 8 billion people on Earth, any virus that manages to hack the human immune system will have an enormous field to exploit.
January 25, 2022
Three and a half stars rounded up. This one was a bit of a slog for me at times, probably mostly because I’m a lot more interested in biology than political history or economics. It’s truly not possible to fully understand one without the others, though, and Harper does a good job of laying it all out. I’m glad I read it…although it didn’t make me fear for the future of humanity any less.
June 15, 2023
This is an entirely novel look at the history of humankind, focusing on the development of diseases and starting from the time that homo sapiens began to divert from other primates. As humans began to shape the world around them, they also shaped a unique disease environment.
I found this a fascinating read, as I had never really considered before how much the environment affects the diseases we suffer from. For example, becoming farmers led to a lot more gastrointestinal disease, as we stayed in one place, surrounded by farm animals, while living in densely packed cities fostered aerially transmitted diseases. In fact some diseases like measles cannot survive if the population is below a certain threshold.
It was also an eye-opener how a successful society, for example the Romans, might be less healthy than a more primitive society like the tribes that lived outside the Roman Empire. Also I did not know before how much the disease environment changed over time and how recent some diseases are - even the common cold wasn't always around.
Throughout history, it's been an arms race between humankind and the microbes that surround us, and it's only recently that humankind has pulled ahead. Reading this book makes you realise how unusual the times we live in are, when for the first time in history the majority of people die from other causes than infectious disease.
If you're interested in the wider causes that have shaped human history, I definitely recommend this book to you.
I found this a fascinating read, as I had never really considered before how much the environment affects the diseases we suffer from. For example, becoming farmers led to a lot more gastrointestinal disease, as we stayed in one place, surrounded by farm animals, while living in densely packed cities fostered aerially transmitted diseases. In fact some diseases like measles cannot survive if the population is below a certain threshold.
It was also an eye-opener how a successful society, for example the Romans, might be less healthy than a more primitive society like the tribes that lived outside the Roman Empire. Also I did not know before how much the disease environment changed over time and how recent some diseases are - even the common cold wasn't always around.
Throughout history, it's been an arms race between humankind and the microbes that surround us, and it's only recently that humankind has pulled ahead. Reading this book makes you realise how unusual the times we live in are, when for the first time in history the majority of people die from other causes than infectious disease.
If you're interested in the wider causes that have shaped human history, I definitely recommend this book to you.
January 4, 2022
Don’t let the title confuse you!!!
I guess I’m going to be the oddball and give this book a one star and it’s only because I have to rate it. Let me begin by saying I’ve been a Science teacher for 20 years and geek out with anything Science related…..except with this book.
If you want a book to help you get to sleep, this is the book If you like books written like a textbook, this is definitely the book. This book is written as an educational, academic style book. It also includes so much information that is not necessary to the topic of this book. Once you wade through all this, there is some interesting information. But there’s A LOT to wade through. You also have to endure soooo much information that is completely off topic. This author chases so many rabbits down the rabbit hole. I was confused on whether he was sharing plagues of the earth or a science lecture on evolution or irrelevant history lessons.
Another thought, if I had a nickel for every time he said “evolution” within the 704 pages I would be a billionaire. We got it in the introduction we didn’t need it in every sentence for 704 pages especially when the author would contradict himself or Science.
I have two regrets…that I spent over $30 for this book and wasted soooo much time hoping it would get better. It was a DNF for me.
I guess I’m going to be the oddball and give this book a one star and it’s only because I have to rate it. Let me begin by saying I’ve been a Science teacher for 20 years and geek out with anything Science related…..except with this book.
If you want a book to help you get to sleep, this is the book If you like books written like a textbook, this is definitely the book. This book is written as an educational, academic style book. It also includes so much information that is not necessary to the topic of this book. Once you wade through all this, there is some interesting information. But there’s A LOT to wade through. You also have to endure soooo much information that is completely off topic. This author chases so many rabbits down the rabbit hole. I was confused on whether he was sharing plagues of the earth or a science lecture on evolution or irrelevant history lessons.
Another thought, if I had a nickel for every time he said “evolution” within the 704 pages I would be a billionaire. We got it in the introduction we didn’t need it in every sentence for 704 pages especially when the author would contradict himself or Science.
I have two regrets…that I spent over $30 for this book and wasted soooo much time hoping it would get better. It was a DNF for me.
March 21, 2023
I really appreciated how the author was able to break down concepts here in an engaging and understandable way for the average reader. this was a very dense and comprehensive read and I feel like I learned a lot!
February 22, 2022
This was a good book.
An interesting read on disease.
Similar to some of the other books on disease I have read over the last couple years, but still a good one. This one was long!
4.0/5
An interesting read on disease.
Similar to some of the other books on disease I have read over the last couple years, but still a good one. This one was long!
4.0/5
October 20, 2022
Summary: Plagues upon the Earth is a comprehensive environmental, ecological, economic, demographic and political history of humans and their infectious diseases, and it is distinguished by its nuance and readability.
Contrary to what most people think, nearly all infectious human diseases appeared quite recently — some as recently as just a few hundred years ago. In his sweeping masterpiece, Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History: 106 (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World) (Princeton University Press, 2021), author Kyle Harper, a Professor of Classics and Letters and Provost Emeritus of the University of Oklahoma, expertly interweaves economic and demographic history with data gathered by the newest cutting-edge genetic advances (phylogenetics — genetic “tree thinking” — and paleogenomics — genetic “time travel”) to throw a light upon the hidden evolutionary histories and trajectories of human viruses, bacteria and parasites, and shows how infectious diseases are a major reason for the ebb and flow of human societies. This intellectual and literary agility is really an impressive feat.
Professor Harper is a historian of the ancient world whose work has connected economic, environmental, and social history. He says he was inspired to write this book after publishing The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World, 2) (Princeton University Press, 2017). In this, his newest book, Professor Harper relies on his vast expertise to tell the compelling story of how pandemic disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and how the enduring effects of historical plagues are still visible today in modern patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. Professor Harper also tells the story of humanity’s progress in medical science and public health, which facilitated our escape from the tyranny of infectious disease. This escape makes modern life possible, even as it damages and destroys the natural environment, thus accelerating the evolution of even more deadly diseases.
This book is divided into four parts and comprises a total of twelve lengthy chapters. It progresses in chronological order, starting with the evolutionary beginnings of Homo sapiens and our dynamic and growing mob of infectious diseases, and continues up to the current COVID-19 pandemic. In chapters 1 and 2, the reader is introduced to the basics of all infectious diseases, particularly the ‘goals’ that predicate disease evolution. “Parasites depend on their hosts and, for purely selfish reasons, they may benefit by limiting the damage they do to their victims”, Professor Harper explains (p. 41). “Imagine the parasitic lifestyle as an ongoing embezzlement scheme (where bilking money translates into genetic success). The best strategy might be one that is restrained enough to avoid detection by not bankrupting the victim. From a selfish perspective, the best strategy is not always the most harmful in the short run. This is the pathogen’s dilemma, and it is fundamental to the evolutionary history of infectious disease.”
Keeping in mind that there are, of course, plenty of situations where damaging the host as much as possible, even until death, is also a viable option.
This, then, sets the stage for the remainder of the book. In chapters 3 to 5, we follow human progress from our hunter-gatherer origins to farming, keeping livestock, urban (colony) living, long-distance travel and trade up through the collapse of the Roman Empire. Along the way, we meet a variety of infectious human diseases — vector-borne parasites (chiefly protozoa and helminths), fecal-oral diseases (primarily bacteria) that are often the agents of intestinal turmoil, and respiratory diseases (mostly viruses) — and learn a little about their specific evolutionary strategies and disease ecologies. Significantly, we also are treated to an extensive analysis and discussion of vivax and falciparum malarias, the latter of which, like an unwelcome and especially violent neighbor, turns up again and again throughout the book (and human history). Chapter 6 goes on to detail how human society was inadvertently engulfed in an outbreak of a rodent pandemic: plague. Although I did learn quite a bit about this bacterial pathogen in my university microbiology classes, I never thought of it an infectious disease of rodents with humans merely as collateral damage on the sidelines. In this chapter, the reader learns the current state of our knowledge about the evolutionary origins, life cycle and impacts of plague on human civilizations that resulted from construction of a system that supports the rapid intercontinental transmission of animal germs.
Chapters 7 and 8 follow the movement of infectious diseases from the Old World across the Atlantic during the European conquests of the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and South America. This conquest triggered the Columbian Exchange, which refers to the whole ensemble of transfers of animals, plants, insects and, of course, pathogens, that ensued when people began to cross the Atlantic regularly to the New World. The Old World benefitted by adopting energy-rich New World foods, such as maize and sweet potatoes, that had been carefully cultivated by the Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years, whereas the New World was left staggering under the weight of an entire suite of dangerous Old World pathogens, particularly respiratory pathogens, but also fecal-oral germs, providing opportunities for new (European) societies to pop up in the desolation left behind. Of course, it wasn’t this simple. As Professor Harper reminds his readers, focusing on infectious diseases makes it easy to view “the depopulation of the New World [as] a lamentable accident, minimizing the role of violence and deliberate exploitation” (p. 243).
At the same time that the Indigenous Peoples of the New World were being depopulated, Africans were involuntarily shipped across the Atlantic as slaves in the biggest forced migration in human history; and Europeans started a process of colonization, settlement and exploitation of the New World that would last several hundred years, reaching its zenith in the nineteenth century. “Over the course of the sixteenth century, the result was one of the greatest demographic catastrophes in the history of our species”, Professor Harper writes (p. 247).
Chapter 9 explores the broader pattern of the ‘general crisis of the seventeenth century’, where war, famine and plague were seemingly everywhere in the Middle Ages. This synchronicity of crises is thought to be due to three events: climate change and climate instability caused by the Little Ice Age, human overpopulation, and frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, especially plague, which was accompanied by typhus and by a new and more virulent strain of smallpox.
Finally, chapters 10 to 12 discuss the relationship between wealth and health in modern history, arguing that both were influenced simultaneously by the growth of scientific knowledge and the emergence of centralized states with the power to enact and enforce public health campaigns. These last three chapters also detail the convoluted intellectual journey that humanity followed in our quest to ultimately understand and then overcome many infectious diseases.
The book also discusses the current COVID-19 pandemic in the light of what we have learned from other, historic pandemics. Professor Harper’s view of how to control infectious disease is one where evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence of overall health between societies. As Professor Harper warns us at the beginning of his book: “We do not, and cannot, live in a state of permanent victory over our germs. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberation from infectious disease, but interruptions are inevitable, not anomalous” (p. 3). At the end of his book, he once again reminds us that we have been warned again and again that another pandemic is inevitable.
With more than seven billion of us alive on the planet today, any infectious disease that can sneak past the human immune system will have an enormous field to exploit. This book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent — and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself.
This powerful, meticulously-researched and timely analysis is a brilliant crowning achievement. There is so much interesting information in this book that I haven’t mentioned in this review — the many diseases, like measles, rinderpest and influenza (just to name a very, very few of the pathogens you’ll meet in this book). The roles of women and non-European peoples in combatting pathogens. Chinese medical science. Domestic animals as the unwitting victims of many human pathogens rather than the source (as widely believed). Crop diseases. This is, quite simply, the most rigorous and most complete book I’ve read in many years. It will appeal to microbiologists, epidemiologists, medical professionals, economists and political historians — actually, it’s difficult for me to think of anyone who will not find something eye-opening and enlightening in the pages of this comprehensive, beautifully written and eloquent book.
NOTE: Originally published at Forbes.com on 31 July 2022.
Contrary to what most people think, nearly all infectious human diseases appeared quite recently — some as recently as just a few hundred years ago. In his sweeping masterpiece, Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History: 106 (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World) (Princeton University Press, 2021), author Kyle Harper, a Professor of Classics and Letters and Provost Emeritus of the University of Oklahoma, expertly interweaves economic and demographic history with data gathered by the newest cutting-edge genetic advances (phylogenetics — genetic “tree thinking” — and paleogenomics — genetic “time travel”) to throw a light upon the hidden evolutionary histories and trajectories of human viruses, bacteria and parasites, and shows how infectious diseases are a major reason for the ebb and flow of human societies. This intellectual and literary agility is really an impressive feat.
Professor Harper is a historian of the ancient world whose work has connected economic, environmental, and social history. He says he was inspired to write this book after publishing The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World, 2) (Princeton University Press, 2017). In this, his newest book, Professor Harper relies on his vast expertise to tell the compelling story of how pandemic disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and how the enduring effects of historical plagues are still visible today in modern patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. Professor Harper also tells the story of humanity’s progress in medical science and public health, which facilitated our escape from the tyranny of infectious disease. This escape makes modern life possible, even as it damages and destroys the natural environment, thus accelerating the evolution of even more deadly diseases.
This book is divided into four parts and comprises a total of twelve lengthy chapters. It progresses in chronological order, starting with the evolutionary beginnings of Homo sapiens and our dynamic and growing mob of infectious diseases, and continues up to the current COVID-19 pandemic. In chapters 1 and 2, the reader is introduced to the basics of all infectious diseases, particularly the ‘goals’ that predicate disease evolution. “Parasites depend on their hosts and, for purely selfish reasons, they may benefit by limiting the damage they do to their victims”, Professor Harper explains (p. 41). “Imagine the parasitic lifestyle as an ongoing embezzlement scheme (where bilking money translates into genetic success). The best strategy might be one that is restrained enough to avoid detection by not bankrupting the victim. From a selfish perspective, the best strategy is not always the most harmful in the short run. This is the pathogen’s dilemma, and it is fundamental to the evolutionary history of infectious disease.”
Keeping in mind that there are, of course, plenty of situations where damaging the host as much as possible, even until death, is also a viable option.
This, then, sets the stage for the remainder of the book. In chapters 3 to 5, we follow human progress from our hunter-gatherer origins to farming, keeping livestock, urban (colony) living, long-distance travel and trade up through the collapse of the Roman Empire. Along the way, we meet a variety of infectious human diseases — vector-borne parasites (chiefly protozoa and helminths), fecal-oral diseases (primarily bacteria) that are often the agents of intestinal turmoil, and respiratory diseases (mostly viruses) — and learn a little about their specific evolutionary strategies and disease ecologies. Significantly, we also are treated to an extensive analysis and discussion of vivax and falciparum malarias, the latter of which, like an unwelcome and especially violent neighbor, turns up again and again throughout the book (and human history). Chapter 6 goes on to detail how human society was inadvertently engulfed in an outbreak of a rodent pandemic: plague. Although I did learn quite a bit about this bacterial pathogen in my university microbiology classes, I never thought of it an infectious disease of rodents with humans merely as collateral damage on the sidelines. In this chapter, the reader learns the current state of our knowledge about the evolutionary origins, life cycle and impacts of plague on human civilizations that resulted from construction of a system that supports the rapid intercontinental transmission of animal germs.
Chapters 7 and 8 follow the movement of infectious diseases from the Old World across the Atlantic during the European conquests of the Caribbean, Mesoamerica and South America. This conquest triggered the Columbian Exchange, which refers to the whole ensemble of transfers of animals, plants, insects and, of course, pathogens, that ensued when people began to cross the Atlantic regularly to the New World. The Old World benefitted by adopting energy-rich New World foods, such as maize and sweet potatoes, that had been carefully cultivated by the Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years, whereas the New World was left staggering under the weight of an entire suite of dangerous Old World pathogens, particularly respiratory pathogens, but also fecal-oral germs, providing opportunities for new (European) societies to pop up in the desolation left behind. Of course, it wasn’t this simple. As Professor Harper reminds his readers, focusing on infectious diseases makes it easy to view “the depopulation of the New World [as] a lamentable accident, minimizing the role of violence and deliberate exploitation” (p. 243).
At the same time that the Indigenous Peoples of the New World were being depopulated, Africans were involuntarily shipped across the Atlantic as slaves in the biggest forced migration in human history; and Europeans started a process of colonization, settlement and exploitation of the New World that would last several hundred years, reaching its zenith in the nineteenth century. “Over the course of the sixteenth century, the result was one of the greatest demographic catastrophes in the history of our species”, Professor Harper writes (p. 247).
Chapter 9 explores the broader pattern of the ‘general crisis of the seventeenth century’, where war, famine and plague were seemingly everywhere in the Middle Ages. This synchronicity of crises is thought to be due to three events: climate change and climate instability caused by the Little Ice Age, human overpopulation, and frequent outbreaks of infectious diseases, especially plague, which was accompanied by typhus and by a new and more virulent strain of smallpox.
Finally, chapters 10 to 12 discuss the relationship between wealth and health in modern history, arguing that both were influenced simultaneously by the growth of scientific knowledge and the emergence of centralized states with the power to enact and enforce public health campaigns. These last three chapters also detail the convoluted intellectual journey that humanity followed in our quest to ultimately understand and then overcome many infectious diseases.
The book also discusses the current COVID-19 pandemic in the light of what we have learned from other, historic pandemics. Professor Harper’s view of how to control infectious disease is one where evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence of overall health between societies. As Professor Harper warns us at the beginning of his book: “We do not, and cannot, live in a state of permanent victory over our germs. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberation from infectious disease, but interruptions are inevitable, not anomalous” (p. 3). At the end of his book, he once again reminds us that we have been warned again and again that another pandemic is inevitable.
The evolution of pathogens is the basic reason we can never entirely escape the risk of global pandemics. Evolution is the source of new diseases and new strains of old diseases. New diseases emerge when microorganisms that infect animals cross the species barrier and adapt the ability to transmit between humans. New strains of old diseases evolve in response to selective pressures we place upon them. Antibiotic resistance, for example, is a form of evolutionary response to our ample use of a select number of chemical weapons against bacteria. Similarly, microbes have strong incentive to change their outward appearance in order to escape from our vaccines. On basic Darwinian principles, those strains that adapt the ability to survive and reproduce in such an environment will pass their genes on to future generations — to our peril. (p. 505)
With more than seven billion of us alive on the planet today, any infectious disease that can sneak past the human immune system will have an enormous field to exploit. This book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent — and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself.
This powerful, meticulously-researched and timely analysis is a brilliant crowning achievement. There is so much interesting information in this book that I haven’t mentioned in this review — the many diseases, like measles, rinderpest and influenza (just to name a very, very few of the pathogens you’ll meet in this book). The roles of women and non-European peoples in combatting pathogens. Chinese medical science. Domestic animals as the unwitting victims of many human pathogens rather than the source (as widely believed). Crop diseases. This is, quite simply, the most rigorous and most complete book I’ve read in many years. It will appeal to microbiologists, epidemiologists, medical professionals, economists and political historians — actually, it’s difficult for me to think of anyone who will not find something eye-opening and enlightening in the pages of this comprehensive, beautifully written and eloquent book.
NOTE: Originally published at Forbes.com on 31 July 2022.
December 18, 2023
I love love love this book.
This book was a first of its kind for me. As i havent read much on this subject, i have no other comparison yet j can say that i gained so much new knowledge and perspective thanks to this book.
It made me realize that any plague or sickness that spread on this earth cannot be taken out of the context of the whole period it happened, or many periods before it. And that everything is interconnected, in a ways i have never even dreamt of. And also many things which we take as given, are very recent developments and in the 18, 19, 20th century we as a human have made so many discoveries and have came so far. Just imagine that only a hundred years ago, in many countries the average age at the time of the death was around 20. And nothing happened just one day, rather through so much trial n error and hard works of many many generations.
I know that everyhing i write seems so obvious, yet this book make me appreciate so many things on a completely different level.
I would sugges this book to everyone who is motivated to read 700 pages or listen 19 hours on audible. Was a challenge in itself, yet so rewarding!
This book was a first of its kind for me. As i havent read much on this subject, i have no other comparison yet j can say that i gained so much new knowledge and perspective thanks to this book.
It made me realize that any plague or sickness that spread on this earth cannot be taken out of the context of the whole period it happened, or many periods before it. And that everything is interconnected, in a ways i have never even dreamt of. And also many things which we take as given, are very recent developments and in the 18, 19, 20th century we as a human have made so many discoveries and have came so far. Just imagine that only a hundred years ago, in many countries the average age at the time of the death was around 20. And nothing happened just one day, rather through so much trial n error and hard works of many many generations.
I know that everyhing i write seems so obvious, yet this book make me appreciate so many things on a completely different level.
I would sugges this book to everyone who is motivated to read 700 pages or listen 19 hours on audible. Was a challenge in itself, yet so rewarding!
February 8, 2022
Actually 3 1/2 stars, no half stars allowed for some reason.
January 27, 2022
I had heard the author on a late night radio talk show, and thought it would be an interesting and insightful read. It is a very deeply researched, huge book. The size of it turned me off. I struggled with it after having read a great summary or introduction. I hoped to isolate certain periods of history, e.g., Black Death or Influenza of 1918, but it wasn’t organized in that fashion. I’m certain it is a great book well executed, but it was too in depth for me. I did really appreciate the higher view of major categorical reasons for continuing man versus invader situations.
November 8, 2021
This is a very detailed review of the history of micro-organism borne disease and the arc of plagues/pandemics in human history. The information is dense and annotated fully with copious notes. As such it is not an easy quick read, but the message that we humans need to pay attention and try to prepare ahead it abundantly clear.
November 22, 2023
I think this book could be OK for people who are new to the topic of the history of infectious diseases. The author does a nice job with stuff like describing the life cycle of the malaria parasite, but something went wrong between the biology basics and the take-home points. It felt like the author climbed the mountain to find the Answer of how to protect humanity from horrible diseases, then after all the travails involved, once he gets within sight of his destination, he closes his eyes and walks off a cliff into the abyss.
Alternatives:
The Origins of Human Disease
The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria
Rats, Lice, and History: A Chronicle of Pestilence and Plagues
Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present
Plagues and Peoples
Nerd addendum:
Maybe the issue is that this book is in the series on the "economic history of the western world" so that the answer for how we have succeeded in decreasing infectious disease deaths has to include "economic growth" even when this makes no sense. As the author points out, economic growth is neither necessary nor sufficient for explaining the decline of plagues and the resulting enormous increase in life expectancy. In fact, as he describes in detail, the path to the Industrial Revolution and urbanization made things worse. But then he twists this around in a sort of self-satire to argue that economic growth made things so bad that then the world had to have a sanitarian reaction, which eventually fixed things. This is like the argument that we need to get rid of civil rights in the US so that we can fight racism: https://www.cc.com/video/1zj4bl/the-c....
Along the same lines, he keeps giving credit to "medical science" even though he points out that medicine had very little in the way of effective treatments at the relevant time. He also clearly explains how what did work was the war on filth, and that was based on Miasma Theory, which is the opposite of the bio-medical scientific model of specific germs causing specific diseases. If his point is that epidemiology and public health are the real "medical sciences" then that is interesting, but this seems very confusing in terms of what 99% of readers today would understand is meant by "medical science." And so that seems like another missed opportunity to clarify what mattered for saving millions or billions of lives.
I was baffled by the decision to frame the concluding section around the "Great Escape," which I think is a book with fundamental flaws. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
Although the author starts out by correctly explaining how microbes have no intentions regarding anything, the rest of the book pullulates with mentions of "our enemies" the germs and how they are trying to kill us. This is vaguely okay in a bio-thriller, but I think is a problem for serious non-fiction.
The author correctly distinguishes between life expectancy and lifespan early on. Nevertheless, these concepts are used interchangeably afterwards and this creates confusion.
The repetition about the wonders of time travel with "tree thinking" from genetic code analysis is irritating, because this turns out to contribute little to understanding of the big question. Neither does the treasure trove of trivia on all those outbreaks. For example (p. 359) as we try to understand why horrible scourges like bubonic plague come and go, we are left with: "riddle," "mysterious ways," "no satisfying reason," "defies complete understanding," "puzzle," and "enigmatic." This is better than lying and making up an explanation, but it is a let-down to wade through hundreds of pages of factoids and eventually end up with nothing new.
Alternatives:
The Origins of Human Disease
The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria
Rats, Lice, and History: A Chronicle of Pestilence and Plagues
Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present
Plagues and Peoples
Nerd addendum:
Maybe the issue is that this book is in the series on the "economic history of the western world" so that the answer for how we have succeeded in decreasing infectious disease deaths has to include "economic growth" even when this makes no sense. As the author points out, economic growth is neither necessary nor sufficient for explaining the decline of plagues and the resulting enormous increase in life expectancy. In fact, as he describes in detail, the path to the Industrial Revolution and urbanization made things worse. But then he twists this around in a sort of self-satire to argue that economic growth made things so bad that then the world had to have a sanitarian reaction, which eventually fixed things. This is like the argument that we need to get rid of civil rights in the US so that we can fight racism: https://www.cc.com/video/1zj4bl/the-c....
Along the same lines, he keeps giving credit to "medical science" even though he points out that medicine had very little in the way of effective treatments at the relevant time. He also clearly explains how what did work was the war on filth, and that was based on Miasma Theory, which is the opposite of the bio-medical scientific model of specific germs causing specific diseases. If his point is that epidemiology and public health are the real "medical sciences" then that is interesting, but this seems very confusing in terms of what 99% of readers today would understand is meant by "medical science." And so that seems like another missed opportunity to clarify what mattered for saving millions or billions of lives.
I was baffled by the decision to frame the concluding section around the "Great Escape," which I think is a book with fundamental flaws. The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality
Although the author starts out by correctly explaining how microbes have no intentions regarding anything, the rest of the book pullulates with mentions of "our enemies" the germs and how they are trying to kill us. This is vaguely okay in a bio-thriller, but I think is a problem for serious non-fiction.
The author correctly distinguishes between life expectancy and lifespan early on. Nevertheless, these concepts are used interchangeably afterwards and this creates confusion.
The repetition about the wonders of time travel with "tree thinking" from genetic code analysis is irritating, because this turns out to contribute little to understanding of the big question. Neither does the treasure trove of trivia on all those outbreaks. For example (p. 359) as we try to understand why horrible scourges like bubonic plague come and go, we are left with: "riddle," "mysterious ways," "no satisfying reason," "defies complete understanding," "puzzle," and "enigmatic." This is better than lying and making up an explanation, but it is a let-down to wade through hundreds of pages of factoids and eventually end up with nothing new.
July 8, 2022
There is a lot of fascinating information in this book, but it was a tough read. The book could have been half the size and had a lot more impact. It was tough to follow a cohesive narrative thread throughout the book. Although the sections generally follow the timeline of human history, from "prehistoric" to modern day, within each section the author seems to jump around erratically - both geographically, culturally, and in regards to specific diseases. He circles back around to the same diseases over and over, describing in depth how they affected a particular culture in a particular area at a specific time, making the same points about each disease over and over and over, with in-depth descriptions from the time period each time.
Still, I learned a lot and the book profoundly changed how I view history, humankind, society and disease.
Still, I learned a lot and the book profoundly changed how I view history, humankind, society and disease.
September 30, 2023
A very engaging topic. However this book does not hit the mark of an enjoyable read. It is overly verbose, with endless repetitions of statements on the value of genome sequencing and “tree thinking” (ie. phylogenetics) and the writing meanders considerably between different diseases, transmission routes, geographic distribution and known history, all without reasonable structure to the discussion. DNF.
March 1, 2022
Fascinating history of humankind and the microorganisms that plague us. Lots of descriptions of living conditions and culture. The author does go off on tangents, but I enjoyed these. Listened to audiobook while on my morning walks. (This book is LONG. Not sure I would have stuck with it in print form)
February 18, 2023
The tongue in cheek title of this book highlights the irony that while we largely celebrate science for pushing back against the biota and parasites that plague us, told from the bug’s view history is a series of evolutionary victories with some minor setbacks. So far,
Bugs 1, Homo sapiens 0.005
We are really at the beginning of understanding the genetic evolution of human, animal, and plant parasites at the same as science continues to fight against evolution, or in some cases, re-engineer it.
The story from the human perspective is unsettling. This book has beautiful illustrations of some of the weirdest and most unpleasant flies and bugs you’d ever want to see up close. It also has very plainly funny if gruesome descriptions of human hygiene prior to 1700.
More sobering is the history of human migration and conquest and it’s impact both on aboriginal populations and on the invaders themselves. Indeed, European conquistadors brought yellow fever and smallpox to the New World. But as Napoleon’s armies in the Caribbean found out, malaria made fighting there impossible and deadly.
Europeans simply weren’t made to thrive in the sub-Tropics. Waves upon waves of English overlords found the beautiful island of Jamaica a death trap. That is what made the importation of slaves from Africa all the more inviting: nobody else could live in those conditions and bring in the harvest of cane sugar.
Mitigation of the impact of deadly protozoa, bacteria, worms, and viruses came with the globalization of science.
The irony abounds.
The very same trends globalize previously regional epidemics and created pandemics. The spread of knowledge. International travel. Not just war for winnings brought us to our present stalemate with the bugs.
I learned to my chagrin that the greatest threat to chimpanzees in Africa are the very scientists who study them. One man sneezes and a community of chimpanzees drops dead. That’s a little simplistic but you get the idea.
Today we humans are the super pest. Since the beginnings of our bioengineering (including the early agricultural communities of the Fertile Crescent) we have been providing incentives for the bugs to adapt to our favourite breeds. And adaptation is pervasive amongst millions if not billions of bacteria and viruses.
The speed of our travel today “super-charged the diffusion of farm pests.” We really help evolution rock and roll. George Washington, for instance, was responsible for importing Tunisian sheep and their viruses, the source of swine flu in America. Meaning: you can’t put all the blame on Monsanto.
Bird flu, swine flu, rusts, and fungi. As with plant diseases human advancements created negative feedback to animal health as well. The feedback included government action and scientific innovation. Commercial agriculture and the transportation revolution represented human adaptations.
Rinderpest completely altered the lifestyle of African Masai. Horse flu in the 1870’s in the U.S. and Canada likely spurred innovation leading to the dominance of the horseless carriage.
Let’s face it: industrial scale agriculture creates the evolutionary breeding grounds for pathogens. Is there a real way to beat back this trend?
Not in my lifetime.
By 1900 there were 400 million cattle in the world, and America’s subsequent success with beef produced new pathogens. I’m thinking the global flu epidemic of 1919 that killed tens of millions after American soldiers brought the flu to the killing fields of Europe.
And today there are probably more chickens on the planet that humans.
Bugs 1, Homo sapiens 0.005
We are really at the beginning of understanding the genetic evolution of human, animal, and plant parasites at the same as science continues to fight against evolution, or in some cases, re-engineer it.
The story from the human perspective is unsettling. This book has beautiful illustrations of some of the weirdest and most unpleasant flies and bugs you’d ever want to see up close. It also has very plainly funny if gruesome descriptions of human hygiene prior to 1700.
More sobering is the history of human migration and conquest and it’s impact both on aboriginal populations and on the invaders themselves. Indeed, European conquistadors brought yellow fever and smallpox to the New World. But as Napoleon’s armies in the Caribbean found out, malaria made fighting there impossible and deadly.
Europeans simply weren’t made to thrive in the sub-Tropics. Waves upon waves of English overlords found the beautiful island of Jamaica a death trap. That is what made the importation of slaves from Africa all the more inviting: nobody else could live in those conditions and bring in the harvest of cane sugar.
Mitigation of the impact of deadly protozoa, bacteria, worms, and viruses came with the globalization of science.
The irony abounds.
The very same trends globalize previously regional epidemics and created pandemics. The spread of knowledge. International travel. Not just war for winnings brought us to our present stalemate with the bugs.
I learned to my chagrin that the greatest threat to chimpanzees in Africa are the very scientists who study them. One man sneezes and a community of chimpanzees drops dead. That’s a little simplistic but you get the idea.
Today we humans are the super pest. Since the beginnings of our bioengineering (including the early agricultural communities of the Fertile Crescent) we have been providing incentives for the bugs to adapt to our favourite breeds. And adaptation is pervasive amongst millions if not billions of bacteria and viruses.
The speed of our travel today “super-charged the diffusion of farm pests.” We really help evolution rock and roll. George Washington, for instance, was responsible for importing Tunisian sheep and their viruses, the source of swine flu in America. Meaning: you can’t put all the blame on Monsanto.
Bird flu, swine flu, rusts, and fungi. As with plant diseases human advancements created negative feedback to animal health as well. The feedback included government action and scientific innovation. Commercial agriculture and the transportation revolution represented human adaptations.
Rinderpest completely altered the lifestyle of African Masai. Horse flu in the 1870’s in the U.S. and Canada likely spurred innovation leading to the dominance of the horseless carriage.
Let’s face it: industrial scale agriculture creates the evolutionary breeding grounds for pathogens. Is there a real way to beat back this trend?
Not in my lifetime.
By 1900 there were 400 million cattle in the world, and America’s subsequent success with beef produced new pathogens. I’m thinking the global flu epidemic of 1919 that killed tens of millions after American soldiers brought the flu to the killing fields of Europe.
And today there are probably more chickens on the planet that humans.
September 16, 2023
Prehistory
The domestication of the donkey and horse did more than allow for plowing, it allowed for the existence of merchants and larger trade networks
Agricultural societies often grow ~25 times faster than Hunter gatherer societies. One reason for this is that agricultural women are more sedentary and consequently have more calories to devote to fertility and raising children. However, in the long run, hunter-gatherer and agrarian societal growth rates balanced out, because agricultural societies were often boom and bust (infectious disease). Often, people didn’t die of starvation per se, they died from an infectious disease that their malnourished body could not defend against.
Roughly 85% of deaths for hunter gatherers were attributed to infectious disease. Perhaps ironically, people who lived near the equator had life expectancies that were a little more than half those of the Eskimos, which is weird because of the amount of food present in the various scenarios. This difference in life expectations is attributable to the prevalence of infectious disease agents, which were much higher near the equator.
Malaria wasn't always limited to the tropics, it's just that European systematically trained swamps and spread antiviral remedies until it was driven out
Fire virtually rendered predators irrelevant, helped us clear landscapes, assisted in digestion (cooked food requires less of it), broadened the range of food that we could eat, and provided heat so that we could inhabit colder climates. Fire is thought to have been first used by Homo erectus, with their size and bone density, especially their large body but small jaw, serving as evidence of an abundance of easily digestible food. In addition to the earlier benefits, fire allowed humans to come out of trees, since it protected them from predators, and sleep on the ground floor. This allowed larger body sizes and populations.
Much of Europe was quasi malarial until the late 18th century, when people started to drain swamps and establish farmland.
Pathogens
The adaptive immune system builds new proteins to attack parasites that have triggered an alarm.
“Relentless evolution” concisely summarizes why simple organisms can be pernicious enemies
73 of the ~1e12 types of bacteria on earth are disease causing in humans
For disease to succeed, it must be able to survive the host immune system and transmit itself to another host. Vectors, such as mosquito, are nice, since they make the transmission mechanism easy and injection into the blood allows the virus/bacteria to bypass many of barriers of the immune system
Human Tuberculosis likely came first and mutated to infect livestock
Much of Europe was quasi malarial until the late 18th century, when people started to drain swamps and establish farmland.
Pre Industrial
The main center of Sumerian Civilization, and the largest city in the world at its time (Copper Age, 3000 BCE), had a population of 40,000. All large cities, those with populations > 10,000, were in the fertile crescent. Thebes had a pop of 120,000 by 1000 BCE. By the first century BCE (Iron Age), Rome had a population of a million.
Infectious disease has been the most important determinant in animal population growth, limiting maximum density for all but the last 100 years of history.
Modern
Author goes over the morning routine of a modern urbanite, noting how much of it is focused on combating microorganisms.
Before vaccines and other cheap interventions, it was impossible for a country to have less than $1,000 a year per capita income and more than 50-year life expectancy.
The influenza virus that scattered across the globe in 1918 became a founder virus; every subsequent epidemic of influenza A, including the seasonal outbreaks that we deal with now, has been caused by a descendant of that virus.
In 1820, annual per capita income in China was $624, in France $1442. By 1900, China had moved only a little to around $800. In France, they were $4,200. $5,600 in the UK.
Alfred Russell Wallace recounted innovations of the highest order: railways, steam ships, telegraphs, telephones, matches, gas lights, photographs, phonographs, X-rays, spectrum analysis to study the stars, anesthetics, antibiotics.
Initial inoculation to smallpox was first developed in China and took the form of blowing old scabs up the nose of the patient
There is a Peruvian tree bark that is effective in the treatment and prevention of malaria. Its properties were brought to the attention of Spanish governors, and the treatment made its way to Europe. It is the first breakthrough in antimalarial treatment.
It wasn't until the early 19th century that increased social status became positively correlated with increased health. I speculate that this is because humans find the gained usable knowledge about medicine, and probably antibiotics. So technology and human understanding that could be purchased, whereas before it was mostly priestly work
If a severe mortality rate is defined as a period in which the mortality rate was more than 30% above the trend, or 11 crises between 1541 and 1750, and none afterwards
Why did the transition to a regime of growth happen? Why did it happen when it happened and where it happened? And what is the relationship between economic growth and the mortality decline?
When you look at economic growth and try to figure out its cause, it's hard to think about anything else. It's an absolutely incredible phenomenon in human history and is largely what makes modern man and modern life so remarkable.
Up until around 1700 CE, life was short and full of sorrow. Annual per capita incomes range from 500 to $1,000 in today's terms. Life expectancy was less than 30 years, and even lower in the tropics.
I am struck by just how crucial the role infectious disease has played in human history. It seems like the biggest factor, and you could even see that in civilization games. Your city population doesn't start growing till you get medicine, which is largely something to combat the effects of infectious disease.
The 30 Years War was remembered afterward with special horror largely because it was the last war fought in Northern Europe before potatoes became widespread enough to cushion the human cost and prevent outright rural starvation
Hookworm life cycle: larvae invade the skin, typically true bare feet, but then pass through a stage in the lungs, where they will be coughed up, only the pass down again through the throat at enter the intestines, where they mature and reproduce
The 16th century had been the age of precious metals and promiscuous microbes. In the 17th century, the hunt for metals still lured colonists, but plantation crops and colonies became the greater source of wealth. The Dutch, English, and French all came to the forefront of power at the time and new diseases, adapted to tropical regions where the new plantations existed, rose to prominence. (Yellow Fever and Malaria)
Initial balance of disease wrecked many of the small indigenous tribes of the soon-to-be United States, which ironically caused the small nations to come together into larger nations like the Cherokee and Iroquois, which were also coincidentally better suited to resist settler expansion
It's interesting to look at the interplay of technology / culture / political organization / economic model. A lot of people seem to think that only one of those factors matters, most likely because any model that involves feedback systems between the two is very complicated and people like/need simple theories. But people can look back at ancient societies and say they failed because of cultural reasons, when really their culture might have been sufficient to hold out if they just had technologies that weren't available to them.
While the sickle cell gene is detrimental to the individual, it's protection against malaria in areas where malaria is ubiquitous makes it better than the alternative of not having it
The domestication of the donkey and horse did more than allow for plowing, it allowed for the existence of merchants and larger trade networks
Agricultural societies often grow ~25 times faster than Hunter gatherer societies. One reason for this is that agricultural women are more sedentary and consequently have more calories to devote to fertility and raising children. However, in the long run, hunter-gatherer and agrarian societal growth rates balanced out, because agricultural societies were often boom and bust (infectious disease). Often, people didn’t die of starvation per se, they died from an infectious disease that their malnourished body could not defend against.
Roughly 85% of deaths for hunter gatherers were attributed to infectious disease. Perhaps ironically, people who lived near the equator had life expectancies that were a little more than half those of the Eskimos, which is weird because of the amount of food present in the various scenarios. This difference in life expectations is attributable to the prevalence of infectious disease agents, which were much higher near the equator.
Malaria wasn't always limited to the tropics, it's just that European systematically trained swamps and spread antiviral remedies until it was driven out
Fire virtually rendered predators irrelevant, helped us clear landscapes, assisted in digestion (cooked food requires less of it), broadened the range of food that we could eat, and provided heat so that we could inhabit colder climates. Fire is thought to have been first used by Homo erectus, with their size and bone density, especially their large body but small jaw, serving as evidence of an abundance of easily digestible food. In addition to the earlier benefits, fire allowed humans to come out of trees, since it protected them from predators, and sleep on the ground floor. This allowed larger body sizes and populations.
Much of Europe was quasi malarial until the late 18th century, when people started to drain swamps and establish farmland.
Pathogens
The adaptive immune system builds new proteins to attack parasites that have triggered an alarm.
“Relentless evolution” concisely summarizes why simple organisms can be pernicious enemies
73 of the ~1e12 types of bacteria on earth are disease causing in humans
For disease to succeed, it must be able to survive the host immune system and transmit itself to another host. Vectors, such as mosquito, are nice, since they make the transmission mechanism easy and injection into the blood allows the virus/bacteria to bypass many of barriers of the immune system
Human Tuberculosis likely came first and mutated to infect livestock
Much of Europe was quasi malarial until the late 18th century, when people started to drain swamps and establish farmland.
Pre Industrial
The main center of Sumerian Civilization, and the largest city in the world at its time (Copper Age, 3000 BCE), had a population of 40,000. All large cities, those with populations > 10,000, were in the fertile crescent. Thebes had a pop of 120,000 by 1000 BCE. By the first century BCE (Iron Age), Rome had a population of a million.
Infectious disease has been the most important determinant in animal population growth, limiting maximum density for all but the last 100 years of history.
Modern
Author goes over the morning routine of a modern urbanite, noting how much of it is focused on combating microorganisms.
Before vaccines and other cheap interventions, it was impossible for a country to have less than $1,000 a year per capita income and more than 50-year life expectancy.
The influenza virus that scattered across the globe in 1918 became a founder virus; every subsequent epidemic of influenza A, including the seasonal outbreaks that we deal with now, has been caused by a descendant of that virus.
In 1820, annual per capita income in China was $624, in France $1442. By 1900, China had moved only a little to around $800. In France, they were $4,200. $5,600 in the UK.
Alfred Russell Wallace recounted innovations of the highest order: railways, steam ships, telegraphs, telephones, matches, gas lights, photographs, phonographs, X-rays, spectrum analysis to study the stars, anesthetics, antibiotics.
Initial inoculation to smallpox was first developed in China and took the form of blowing old scabs up the nose of the patient
There is a Peruvian tree bark that is effective in the treatment and prevention of malaria. Its properties were brought to the attention of Spanish governors, and the treatment made its way to Europe. It is the first breakthrough in antimalarial treatment.
It wasn't until the early 19th century that increased social status became positively correlated with increased health. I speculate that this is because humans find the gained usable knowledge about medicine, and probably antibiotics. So technology and human understanding that could be purchased, whereas before it was mostly priestly work
If a severe mortality rate is defined as a period in which the mortality rate was more than 30% above the trend, or 11 crises between 1541 and 1750, and none afterwards
Why did the transition to a regime of growth happen? Why did it happen when it happened and where it happened? And what is the relationship between economic growth and the mortality decline?
When you look at economic growth and try to figure out its cause, it's hard to think about anything else. It's an absolutely incredible phenomenon in human history and is largely what makes modern man and modern life so remarkable.
Up until around 1700 CE, life was short and full of sorrow. Annual per capita incomes range from 500 to $1,000 in today's terms. Life expectancy was less than 30 years, and even lower in the tropics.
I am struck by just how crucial the role infectious disease has played in human history. It seems like the biggest factor, and you could even see that in civilization games. Your city population doesn't start growing till you get medicine, which is largely something to combat the effects of infectious disease.
The 30 Years War was remembered afterward with special horror largely because it was the last war fought in Northern Europe before potatoes became widespread enough to cushion the human cost and prevent outright rural starvation
Hookworm life cycle: larvae invade the skin, typically true bare feet, but then pass through a stage in the lungs, where they will be coughed up, only the pass down again through the throat at enter the intestines, where they mature and reproduce
The 16th century had been the age of precious metals and promiscuous microbes. In the 17th century, the hunt for metals still lured colonists, but plantation crops and colonies became the greater source of wealth. The Dutch, English, and French all came to the forefront of power at the time and new diseases, adapted to tropical regions where the new plantations existed, rose to prominence. (Yellow Fever and Malaria)
Initial balance of disease wrecked many of the small indigenous tribes of the soon-to-be United States, which ironically caused the small nations to come together into larger nations like the Cherokee and Iroquois, which were also coincidentally better suited to resist settler expansion
It's interesting to look at the interplay of technology / culture / political organization / economic model. A lot of people seem to think that only one of those factors matters, most likely because any model that involves feedback systems between the two is very complicated and people like/need simple theories. But people can look back at ancient societies and say they failed because of cultural reasons, when really their culture might have been sufficient to hold out if they just had technologies that weren't available to them.
While the sickle cell gene is detrimental to the individual, it's protection against malaria in areas where malaria is ubiquitous makes it better than the alternative of not having it
November 19, 2023
Since William McNeill's groundbreaking history 'Plagues and Peoples', few overarching epidemiological histories have been written. At the time, McNeill's work represented an unexplored aspect of the historical narrative and could at times be speculative given the lack of research. Plagues upon the Earth represents a sequel and an updated version, with the latest studies and technology, worthy of McNeill’s (and many great historians’). There is a reason why few epidemiological histories have been written; it's a daunting task. It is certainly an underappreciated aspect, both in the past and now. Primary sources just tend to prefer to write about processes that are of human agency. Summarising the pervasive nature of disease in human history is extremely difficult when considering the lack of sources and data over the time period. This is quite the accomplishment and worthy of praise.
Kyle Harper offers an informative and engaging read; switching between broad historical analysis and how individual diseases work. Anyone looking for a summary of many of humanity's deadliest opponents will find excellent reading material here. Diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis simply don't get the recognition they deserve in wealthy countries where they've been eliminated. These illnesses held back human flourishing for millennia on end. The eradication of Smallpox in 1977 was one of humanity's great achievements throughout history. Harper takes the reader on a historical journey with these illnesses and many more throughout the book. Stopping where needed to point out a particularly important dynamic. The author's use of new research technologies that have aided in our understanding of disease is really eye-opening. 'Tree thinking' or tracing back the origins of diseases continue to offer fascinating new perspectives on the course of history. Confirmation of a 6th century 'Black Death' strain is one such realisation. While this work is far from complete, it continues to offer insight into the past.
Our conquest of disease, unstable as it is, is something all of humanity can be proud of. And yet we are constantly at risk. New germs attempt to penetrate our fragile sterile world and wreak havoc. The horses may be in their stables but very little holds that spectre back. Really great read and an easy recommendation for historians and knowledge seekers.
Kyle Harper offers an informative and engaging read; switching between broad historical analysis and how individual diseases work. Anyone looking for a summary of many of humanity's deadliest opponents will find excellent reading material here. Diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis simply don't get the recognition they deserve in wealthy countries where they've been eliminated. These illnesses held back human flourishing for millennia on end. The eradication of Smallpox in 1977 was one of humanity's great achievements throughout history. Harper takes the reader on a historical journey with these illnesses and many more throughout the book. Stopping where needed to point out a particularly important dynamic. The author's use of new research technologies that have aided in our understanding of disease is really eye-opening. 'Tree thinking' or tracing back the origins of diseases continue to offer fascinating new perspectives on the course of history. Confirmation of a 6th century 'Black Death' strain is one such realisation. While this work is far from complete, it continues to offer insight into the past.
Our conquest of disease, unstable as it is, is something all of humanity can be proud of. And yet we are constantly at risk. New germs attempt to penetrate our fragile sterile world and wreak havoc. The horses may be in their stables but very little holds that spectre back. Really great read and an easy recommendation for historians and knowledge seekers.
June 18, 2022
This is a brillant, well-researched and timely book. It combines economic and demographic history with recent advances in the evolutionary history of parasites (especially in phylogenetics and paleogenomics) to show how infectious diseases are a major component for the explanations of the ups and downs of human societies. Chapter 1 and 2 explain the basics of infectious diseases (including an appendix listing all human pathogens) and also why humans are such delectable hosts. Chapters 3 to 5 focus on different kinds of parasites, and their characteristic relations with humans: vector-borne parasites (mostly protozoa and helminths), fecal-oral diseases (the realm of bacteria), and respiratory diseases (in which virus are dominant). Chapters 6 to 9 explore more specific events or contexts: the Plague, its origins and its impacts on civilizations across the globe; the role of infectious disease in the patterns of colonization and slavery around the Atlantic; and the interconnection of diseases, climatic instability and population pressure in the seventeenth century crisis. Finally, chapters 10 to 12 discuss the relationship between wealth and health in modern history, arguing that both were influenced simultaneously by the growth of scientific knowledge and the emergence of centralized states, and explore many instances of the complex dynamic between economic and technological progress, ecological disaster and infectious diseases. This book is a must-read for those interested in history, ecology or demographics.
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