Plagues upon the Earth

Disease and the Course of Human History

By: Kyle Harper

Narrated by: Tim Fannon

Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

How pathogenic microbes have been an intimate part of human history from the beginning - and how our deadliest germs and biggest pandemics are the product of our success as a species.

Plagues upon the Earth is a monumental history of humans and their germs. Weaving together a grand narrative of global history with insights from cutting-edge genetics, Kyle Harper explains why humanity’s uniquely dangerous disease pool is rooted deep in our evolutionary past, and why its growth is accelerated by technological progress. He shows that the story of disease is entangled with the history of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, and reveals the enduring effects of historical plagues all around us, in patterns of wealth, health, power, and inequality. He also tells the story of humanity’s escape from infectious disease - a triumph that makes life as we know it possible, yet destabilizes the environment and fosters new diseases.

Panoramic in scope, Plagues upon the Earth traces role of disease in the transition to farming, the spread of cities, the advance of transportation, and the stupendous increase in human numbers. Harper offers a new interpretation of humanity’s path to control over infectious disease - one where rising evolutionary threats constantly push back against human progress, and where the devastating effects of modernization contribute to the great divergence between societies. The book reminds us that human health is globally interdependent - and inseparable from the well-being of the planet itself.

Putting the COVID-19 pandemic in perspective, Plagues upon the Earth tells the story of how we got here as a species, and it may help us decide where we want to go.

©2021 Kyle Harper (P)2021 Recorded Books

Impressive compilation by accomplished historian

As the most important third of guns, germs, and steel, Kyle Harper's book is a fascinating and comprehensive compilation of the natural history of the viruses, bacteria, protists, and helminths that affect every organism on the planet, especially certain of us primates.

(Helminths btw are worms and I should add that parts "Plagues" are definitely not for the squeamish.)

Exceptional

One of the most sweeping reimaginings of human history in decades. The level of detail is immense but not overbearing and technical details are explained well for the layperson. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough.

Astounding

Brilliantly written and performed. Just the history alone is worth the listen. A tale of human survival and suffering.

Fascinating. history through the lens of disease

It's a weighty book but I'll never think of the distant past in the same way. I loved how this changed my view of the way history unfolded as a function of disease burden.

Must read

I’ am a doctor with long-standing interest in the subject of infectious disease. The presentation of this subject through the lens of human social history broadened my grasp of both history and medicine. What a treasure!

Waste of time...endless dribble.

Author is to busy trying to sound intelligent, Narrator mechanically does his best. Use it to put yourself to sleep.

Agreed, the narrator ruins it

The story is interesting and I would have listened to the whole thing if I could have tolerated the narrator. But, I could not. I quit after a few hours, in the middle of a really interesting chapter about the Neolithic, because I couldn't take his narration anymore. The other reviewer who mentioned the mispronounced words was correct, and these are not just scientific words. Some of them are just regular multisyllabic words that you hear out of people's mouths on a routine basis. More irritatingly, the narrator uses the same singsong inflection at the end of every sentence. The next-to-last syllable is uttered at a higher pitch than the rest of the sentence. This wouldn't be bad at all if it occurred every few minutes, but the sing-song cadence is at the end of 95% of the sentences. It starts to get to the point where you're just listening to the sentence waiting for the sing-SONG-iness about the neolithic revol-U-tion. Too distracting; I returned it.

Horrific narration

The narrator ruins this. I’m sorry to be so harsh, but he’s not smart enough to be presenting this material. I lost count of the mispronunciations, which are extremely jarring. I have to imagine the author was shocked when he heard this. They need to try again.