Plagues and Peoples

De: William H. McNeill

Narrado por: Douglas James

The history of disease is the history of humankind: an interpretation of the world as seen through the extraordinary impact—political, demographic, ecological, and psychological—of disease on cultures.

“A book of the first importance, a truly revolutionary work.” —The New Yorker

From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, William H. McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples is “a brilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement” (Kirkus Reviews).

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter was added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his introduction to this edition. McNeill’s highly acclaimed work is a brilliant and challenging account of the effects of disease on human history. His sophisticated analysis and detailed grasp of the subject make this book fascinating to listen to.

Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively bingeable, Plagues and Peoples is essential listening—that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening. This title is masterfully narrated by Douglas James. Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

©2010 William H. McNeill (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC

Good book, better audiobook

Easy to listen to, easier than reading the book alone. There wasn’t any part where the narrator veered off track except one or two points, which I appreciated

Great book!

McNeill’s focus on the relationship between humans and disease provides readers with fascinating insights into how frequently infectious disease has driven history. Highly recommended!