Epidemics and Pandemics: Their Impacts on Human History

Balancing current and historical issues, this volume of essays covers the most significant worldwide epidemics from the Black Death to AIDS. • Each of the 50 essays includes a bibliography for further reading on each subject and is cross-referenced to help the reader put the material into context • Glossary defines terms such as pandemic, germ theory, and virgin soil epidemic • Visuals such as an illustration of a 17th-century costume worn to ward off the plague and a photo of a panicked father carrying a polio-stricken daughter dramatize the effect of epidemics • Maps illustrate the spread of major pandemics, such as influenza in 1918 • Sidebars feature source documents, such as an eyewitness account of the death of composer Frédéric Chopin or clergyman Cotton Mather's description of smallpox inoculation in 1721