A Short History of Disease
Plagues, Poxes and Civilisations
This second edition contains an afterword on COVID-19, looking at the origins and nature of the virus, and how governments across the globe dealt with the most serious public health emergency in a century.
A Short History of Disease chronicles the historical and geographical evolution of infectious and non-infectious diseases, from their prehistoric origins to the present. It offers a comprehensive guide to ailments and the medicines developed to combat them. Analysing case studies – including the Black Death, Spanish Flu, cholera, leprosy, syphilis, cancer, and Ebola – Sean Martin maps the growth of our understanding of disease.
The book offers a fascinating insight into an important area of social history, providing an accessible introduction to disease and the ongoing quest to protect human health.
'Martin isn’t joking when he calls this a history of disease. He goes right back to the earliest bacteria to evolve on the primordial Earth, long before there was anything around to infect. The path they take from there is the kind of story you might wish you’d learned in school science lessons...A consistently interesting, clearly told book bringing many diverse threads together in one place.' —Herald Scotland
Sean Martin is a writer, poet and filmmaker. He has written books on The Knights Templar, Alchemy and Alchemists, The Gnostics, The Cathars, Andrei Tarkovsky and New Waves in Cinema. His films include Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas & the Secret History of Cinema ('a fine documentary' – The Guardian), and Folie à Deux.
