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Outbreak!
- Plagues that Changed History
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins
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Outbreak!
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Publisher's summary
“An engrossing introduction for young adult readers to the chillingly topical subject of man vs. microbe.” (The Wall Street Journal)
Did the Black Death destroy medieval Europe? Did cholera pave the way for modern Manhattan? Did yellow fever help end the slave trade? Remarkably, the answer to all of these questions is "Yes". Time and again, diseases have impacted the course of human history in surprisingly powerful ways. From influenza to smallpox, from tuberculosis to yellow fever, Bryn Barnard describes the symptoms and paths of the world’s worst diseases - and how the epidemics they spawned have changed history forever.
Filled with fascinating, often gory details about disease and history, Outbreak! is a wonderful combination of science and history.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 768
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 657
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 654
In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus travelled across the globe, exposing mankind's vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. As socially significant as both world wars, the Spanish flu dramatically disrupted - and often permanently altered - global politics, race relations, and family structures while spurring innovation in medicine, religion, and the arts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Predilection for Those in the Prime of Life
- By Cynthia on 02-12-18
By: Laura Spinney
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Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds
- Ebola and the Ravages of History
- By: Paul Farmer
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story5 out of 5 stars 77
In 2014, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea suffered the worst epidemic of Ebola in history. The brutal virus spread rapidly through a clinical desert, where basic health-care facilities were few and far between. Causing severe loss of life and economic disruption, the Ebola crisis was a major tragedy of modern medicine. But why did it happen, and what can we learn from it?
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5 out of 5 stars
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CRITICAL LISTENING for 2020!
- By Vin on 11-17-20
By: Paul Farmer
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Between Hope and Fear
- A History of Vaccines and Human Immunity
- By: Michael Kinch
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
Between Hope and Fear tells the remarkable story of vaccine-preventable infectious diseases and their social and political implications. While detailing the history of vaccine invention, Michael Kinch reveals the ominous reality that our victories against vaccine-preventable diseases are not permanent - and could easily be undone. Between Hope and Fear relates the remarkable intersection of science, technology, and disease that has helped eradicate many of the deadliest plagues known to man.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Enjoyed
- By Minsi Zhang on 05-03-20
By: Michael Kinch
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The Black Death: A History from Beginning to End
- By: Hourly History
- Narrated by: Jimmy Kieffer
- Length: 1 hr
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
Sweeping across the known world with unchecked devastation, the Black Death claimed between 75 million and 200 million lives in four short years. In this engaging and well-researched audiobook, the trajectory of the plague’s march west across Eurasia and the cause of the great pandemic is thoroughly explored. Fascinating insights into the medieval mind’s perception of the disease and examinations of contemporary accounts give a complete picture of what the world’s most effective killer meant to medieval society.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fine history of a pandemic
- By Fr. S. on 03-25-23
By: Hourly History
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Get Well Soon
- History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
- By: Jennifer Wright
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,721
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 8,015
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,982
In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and didn't stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later, and soon 34 more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-19th-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhome - a social club for those who had lost their noses, and other body parts, to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Didn't know syphilis could be so fascinating.
- By Kindle Customer on 02-09-17
By: Jennifer Wright
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Progress
- Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future
- By: Johan Norberg
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 206
It's on the television, in the papers, and in our minds. Every day we're bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is - financial collapse, unemployment, growing poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. But the rarely acknowledged reality is that our progress over the past few decades has been unprecedented. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Global Uptrends That May Surprise You
- By Alexandra Hopkins on 09-22-17
By: Johan Norberg
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The Fate of Rome
- Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire
- By: Kyle Harper
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 393
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 327
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 325
Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes listeners from Rome's pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting and worthwhile
- By B. Coleman on 06-15-19
By: Kyle Harper
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Viruses, Plagues, and History
- Past, Present, and Future
- By: Michael B. A. Oldstone
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 541
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 461
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 461
The story of viruses and humanity is a story of fear and ignorance, of grief and heartbreak, and of great bravery and sacrifice. Michael Oldstone tells all these stories as he illuminates the history of the devastating diseases that have tormented humanity, focusing mostly on the most famous viruses. For this revised edition, Oldstone includes discussions of new viruses like SARS, bird flu, virally caused cancers, chronic wasting disease, and West Nile. Viruses, Plagues, and History paints a sweeping portrait of humanity's long-standing conflict with our unseen viral enemies.
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4 out of 5 stars
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very detailed, but very statistical
- By ekhensel15 on 01-12-19
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Milk of Paradise
- A History of Opium
- By: Lucy Inglis
- Narrated by: Colleen Prendergast
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Poppy tears, opium, heroin, fentanyl: humankind has been in thrall to the ‘Milk of Paradise’ for millennia. The latex of papaver somniferum is a bringer of sleep, of pleasurable lethargy, of relief from pain - and hugely addictive. A commodity without rival, it is renewable, easy to extract, transport and refine, and subject to an insatiable global demand. No other substance in the world is as simple to produce or as profitable. It is the basis of a gargantuan industry built upon a shady underworld, but ultimately it is a farm-gate material that lives many lives ....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Historical gold mine....
- By Alednam A Uonopk on 01-29-20
By: Lucy Inglis
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The Moth in the Iron Lung
- A Biography of Polio
- By: Forrest Maready
- Narrated by: Forrest Maready
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 441
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 383
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Story5 out of 5 stars 382
A fascinating account of the world’s most famous disease - polio - told as you have never heard it before. Epidemics of paralysis began to rage in the early 1900s, seemingly out of nowhere. Doctors, parents, and health officials were at a loss to explain why this formerly unheard-of disease began paralyzing so many children. Why did this disease start to become such a horrible problem during the late 1800s? Why did it affect children more often than adults? Why was it originally called teething paralysis by mothers and their doctors?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Root Cause
- By Circlekay1 Gulfport MS on 10-24-19
By: Forrest Maready
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The Black Death: A Captivating Guide to the Deadliest Pandemic in Medieval Europe and Human History
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Randy Whitlow
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4 out of 5 stars 36
The Black Death was the first recorded pandemic in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. All across the continent, people learned just how gruesome and horrific disease could be as the plague crossed the boundaries of countries and the lines established by society, killing everyone equally. It showed that no one - not even archbishops and kings - was immune from its grasp.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Captivating and Comprehensive
- By Rick House on 05-11-20
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Opium
- How an Ancient Flower Shaped and Poisoned Our World
- By: John H. Halpern, David Blistein
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
Opium tells the extraordinary and at times harrowing tale of how we arrived at today's crisis, "mak[ing] timely and startling connections among painkillers, politics, finance, and society" (Laurence Bergreen). The story begins with the discovery of poppy artifacts in ancient Mesopotamia, and goes on to explore how Greek physicians and obscure chemists discovered opium's effects and refined its power, how colonial empires marketed it around the world, and eventually how international drug companies developed a range of powerful synthetic opioids that led to an addiction epidemic.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Opium a poor excuse for a better history.
- By Jeffrey Olsen on 09-12-19
By: John H. Halpern, and others
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Poisons
- From Hemlock to Botox and the Killer Bean Calabar
- By: Peter Macinnis
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4 out of 5 stars 71
A wide-ranging and provocative look - teeming with little-known facts and engaging stories - at a subject of the direst interest. Poisons permeate our world. They are in the environment, the workplace, the home. They are in food, our favorite whiskey, medicine, well water. They have been used to cure disease as well as incapacitate and kill. They smooth wrinkles, block pain, stimulate, and enhance athletic ability. In this entertaining and fact-filled audiobook, science writer Peter Macinnis considers poisons in all their aspects. He recounts stories of the celebrated poisoners in history and literature....
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5 out of 5 stars
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#MyNonFictionAddiction
- By EinsteinzVice on 11-07-19
By: Peter Macinnis
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Influenza
- The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic
- By: Dr. Jeremy Brown
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 361
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 309
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 307
On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Important read
- By Kathryn C. on 12-21-18
By: Dr. Jeremy Brown