Review by Choice Review
Snowden (emer., Yale Univ.) has created neither a textbook nor an original research work. Instead, he has distilled the content of his former undergraduate course into a very useful, wide-ranging review of the multiple connections between epidemic disease and historical change and development. Even a book of this length must be selective, however, and Snowden focuses on the industrial West and a limited group of epidemic diseases, including plague and tuberculosis. His handling of the connection between disease events and wars, revolutions, and social dislocation makes the case, already well-established in other, individual works, that epidemic disease is never an isolated event. Influenza, the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century, merits only several brief references to the "Spanish Lady" of 1918--19. But many epidemiologists consider influenza one of the greatest future pandemic threats, and so one could wish for more detail here. Similarly, the discussion of bubonic plague in San Francisco in the first years of the 20th century could have included more on the link between public health measures and anti-Chinese views. Selectivity is inevitable, however, and Snowden's selections make sense. The result is a very readable book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Jeffrey H. Barker, Converse College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
