Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present by Frank M. Snowden (review)

ABSTRACT

Thematically, the book concentrates on the intellectual, cultural, and public health contexts of epidemics, with frequent attention to the interplay of war and disease. The main disappointment (for me) in his choices of what to include and what to leave out is the extremely thin treatment of the disease experience of the Americas in the wake of Columbus. For readers interested primarily in Europe's cultural, scientific, and public health engagement with epidemics, this book will serve admirably.