The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity And Infectious Disease

  • Author: Charles Kenny
  • Narrator: Jacques Roy
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Duration: 7:05:07
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Synopsis

A vivid, sweeping history of mankind’s battles with infectious disease, for readers of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Yuval Harari’s Sapiens and John Barry’s The Great Influenza.

For four thousand years, the size and vitality of cities, economies, and empires were heavily determined by infection. Striking humanity in waves, the cycle of plagues set the tempo of civilizational growth and decline, since common response to the threat was exclusion—quarantining the sick or keeping them out. But the unprecedented hygiene and medical revolutions of the past two centuries have allowed humanity to free itself from the hold of epidemic cycles—resulting in an urbanized, globalized, and unimaginably wealthy world.

However, our development has lately become precarious. Climate and population fluctuations and aspects of our prosperity such as global trade have left us more vulnerable than ever to newly emerging plagues. Greater global cooperation toward sustainable health is urgently required—such as the international efforts to harvest a Covid-19 vaccine—with millions of lives and trillions of dollars at stake.

Written as colorful history, The Plague Cycle reveals the relationship between civilization, globalization, prosperity, and infectious disease over the past five millennia. It harnesses history, economics, and public health, and charts humanity’s remarkable progress, providing a fascinating and timely look at the cyclical nature of infectious disease.

Chapters

  • 001 PlagueCycle Open

    Duration: 15s
  • 002 PlagueCycle Preface

    Duration: 06min
  • 003 PlagueCycle Ch1 MalthussUltimateWeapon

    Duration: 16min
  • 004 PlagueCycle Ch2 CivilizationAndTheRiseOfInfection

    Duration: 32min
  • 005 PlagueCycle Ch3 TradeMergesDiseasePools

    Duration: 42min
  • 006 PlagueCycle Ch4 PestilenceConquers

    Duration: 40min
  • 007 PlagueCycle Ch5 TheExclusionInstinct

    Duration: 40min
  • 008 PlagueCycle Ch6 CleaningUp

    Duration: 37min
  • 009 PlagueCycle Ch7 SalvationByNeedle

    Duration: 54min
  • 010 PlagueCycle Ch8 ItsGoodToGetCloser

    Duration: 33min
  • 011 PlagueCycle Ch9 TheRevengeOfInfection

    Duration: 32min
  • 012 PlagueCycle Ch10 AbusingOurBestDefenses

    Duration: 48min
  • 013 PlagueCycle Ch11 FlatteningThePlagueCycle

    Duration: 30min
  • 014 PlagueCycle Ch12 Conclusion

    Duration: 09min
  • 015 PlagueCycle Credits

    Duration: 33s