Frank M. Snowden

As seen on "60 Minutes" a "brilliant and sobering" (Paul Kennedy, Wall Street Journal) look at the history and human costs of pandemic outbreaks The World Economic Forum #1 book to read for context on the coronavirus outbreak "Well-written, highly entertaining and relevant."--Financial Times, "Best Books of 2020: Readers' Choice" This sweeping exploration of the impact of epidemic diseases looks at how mass infectious outbreaks have shaped society, from the Black Death to today. In a clear and accessible style, Frank M. Snowden reveals the ways that diseases have not only influenced medical science and public health, but also transformed the arts, religion, intellectual history, and warfare. A multidisciplinary and comparative investigation of the medical and social history of the major epidemics, this volume touches on themes such as the evolution of medical therapy, plague literature, poverty, the environment, and mass hysteria. In addition to providing historical perspective on diseases such as smallpox, cholera, and tuberculosis, Snowden examines the fallout from recent epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and Ebola and the question of the world's preparedness for the next generation of diseases.

From the Black Death to the Present

Epidemics and Society

Investigates the participation of black Africans, usually referred to as "Ethiopians," by the Greek and Romans, in classical civilization, concluding that they were accepted by pagans and Christians without prejudice.

Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience

Blacks in Antiquity

Malaria is one of the most important OC emergingOCO or OC resurgentOCO infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization, this mosquito-borne infection is a leading cause of suffering, death, poverty, and underdevelopment in the world today. Every year 500 million people become severely ill from malaria and more than a million people die, the great majority of them women and children living in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2008, it was estimated, a child would die of the disease every thirty seconds, making malaria OCo together with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis OCo a global public health emergency. This is in stark contrast to the heady visions of the 1950s predicting complete global eradication of the ancient scourge. What went wrong?. This question warrants a closer look at not just the disease itself, but its long history and the multitude of strategies to combat its spread. This book collects the many important milestones in malaria control and treatment in one convenient volume. Importantly, it also traces the history of the disease from the 1920s to the present, and over several continents. It is the first multidisciplinary volume of its kind combining historical and scientific information that addresses the global challenge of malaria control. Malaria remains as resurgent as ever and The Global Challenge of Malaria: Past Lessons and Future Prospects will examine this challenge OCo and the range of strategies and tools to confront it OCo from an interdisciplinary and transnational perspective. Contents: Lessons of History: Malaria in America (Margaret Humphreys); Technological Solutions: The Rockefeller Insecticidal Approach to Malaria Control, 1920OCo1950 (Darwin H Stapleton); Malaria Control and Eradication Projects in Tropical Africa, 1945OCo1965 (James L A Webb, Jr); The Use and Misuse of History: Lessons from Sardinia (Frank M Snowden); Popular Education and Participation in Malaria Control: A Historical Overview (Socrates Litsios); Scientific, Medical, and Public Health Perspectives: The Contribution of the Gambia to Malaria Research (Brian Greenwood); InsecticideOCoTreated Bednets and Malaria Control: Strategies, Implementation, and Outcome (Harry V Flaster, Emily Mosites, and Brian G Blackburn); The Scientific and Medical Challenge of Malaria (Tiffany Sun and Richard Bucala). Readership: Historians of medicine; research scientists; clinicians, especially in the specialties of tropical medicine and infectious diseases; public health officials; environmentalists; and students in public health and history of medicine programs; general readers interested in contemporary issues of global health."

Past Lessons and Future Prospects

The Global Challenge of Malaria

Argues that ancient civilization did not discriminate against Black people and suggests reasons for the development of prejudice in the modern world

The Ancient View of Blacks

Before Color Prejudice

At the outset of the twentieth century, malaria was Italy’s major public health problem. It was the cause of low productivity, poverty, and economic backwardness, while it also stunted literacy, limited political participation, and undermined the army. In this book Frank Snowden recounts how Italy became the world center for the development of malariology as a medical discipline and launched the first national campaign to eradicate the disease. Snowden traces the early advances, the setbacks of world wars and Fascist dictatorship, and the final victory against malaria after World War II. He shows how the medical and teaching professions helped educate people in their own self-defense and in the process expanded trade unionism, women’s consciousness, and civil liberties. He also discusses the antimalarial effort under Mussolini’s regime and reveals the shocking details of the German army’s intentional release of malaria among Italian civilians—the first and only known example of bioterror in twentieth-century Europe. Comprehensive and enlightening, this history offers important lessons for today’s global malaria emergency.

Italy, 1900-1962

The Conquest of Malaria

Professor Frank Snowden

This is the first extended study of cholera in modern Italy, setting Naples in a comparative international framework.

Frank M. Snowden

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