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Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
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Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World
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We are facing an overwhelming army of deadly, invisible enemies. We need a plan - before it's too late. Unlike natural disasters, whose destruction is concentrated in a limited area over a period of days, and illnesses, which have devastating effects but are limited to individuals and their families, infectious disease has the terrifying power to disrupt everyday life on a global scale, overwhelming public and private resources and bringing trade and transportation to a grinding halt.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Publisher's Summary
This book covers the history of 12 important diseases and addresses public health responses and societal upheavals.
- Chronicles the ways disease outbreaks shaped traditions and institutions of Western civilization.
- Explains the effects, causes, and outcomes from past epidemics.
- Describes a dozen diseases to show how disease control either was achieved or failed.
- Makes clear the interrelationship between diseases and history.
- Presents material in a compelling, clear, and jargon-free prose for a wide audience.
- Provides a picture of the best practices for dealing with disease outbreaks.
What listeners say about Twelve Diseases That Changed Our World
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meh
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 440
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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The American Plague
- The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History
- By: Molly Caldwell Crosby
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
In 1900, the U.S. sent three doctors to Cuba to discover how yellow fever was spread. There, they launched one of history's most controversial human studies. Compelling and terrifying, The American Plague depicts the story of yellow fever and its reign in this country - and in Africa, where even today it strikes thousands every year. With "arresting tales of heroism," it is a story as much about the nature of human beings as it is about the nature of disease.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Yellow Fever in Memphis
- By Kevin P Key on 04-13-20
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Epidemics
- Hate and Compassion from the Plague of Athens to AIDS
- By: Samuel Kline Cohn Jr.
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 29 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4 out of 5 stars 24
By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics reaching back before the fifth-century-BCE Plague of Athens to the distrust and violence that erupted with Ebola in 2014, Epidemics challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics, that invariably across time and space, epidemics provoked hatred, blaming of the "other", and victimizing bearers of epidemic diseases, particularly when diseases were mysterious, without known cures or preventive measures.
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3 out of 5 stars
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meh
- By Anonymous User on 01-11-19
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America's Forgotten Pandemic (Second Edition)
- The Influenza of 1918
- By: Alfred W. Crosby
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 10
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Story5 out of 5 stars 10
Between August 1918 and March 1919, the Spanish influenza spread worldwide, claiming over 25 million lives. In this vivid narrative, Alfred W. Crosby recounts the course of the pandemic during the panic-stricken months of 1918 and 1919, measures its impact on American society, and probes the curious loss of national memory of this cataclysmic event. This edition includes a preface discussing the then-recent outbreaks of diseases, including the Asian flu and the SARS epidemic.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A full account with lessons for today
- By Jackson Babb on 07-30-22
By: Alfred W. Crosby
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A Planet of Viruses [Third Edition]
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story5 out of 5 stars 25
In 2020, an invisible germ - a virus - wholly upended our lives. We're most familiar with the viruses that give us colds or Covid-19. But viruses also cause a vast range of other diseases, including one disorder that makes people sprout branch-like growths as if they were trees. Viruses have been a part of our lives for so long that we are actually part virus: the human genome contains more DNA from viruses than our own genes. Meanwhile, scientists are discovering viruses everywhere they look: in the soil, in the ocean, even in deep caves miles underground.
By: Carl Zimmer
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When Life Nearly Died
- The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time
- By: Michael J. Benton
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 105
Today it is common knowledge that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteorite impact 65 million years ago that killed half of all species then living. It is far less widely understood that a much greater catastrophe took place at the end of the Permian period 251 million years ago: at least 90 percent of life on earth was destroyed. When Life Nearly Died documents not only what happened during this gigantic mass extinction, but also the recent renewal of the idea of catastrophism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Obscurity to Enlightenment - A Mystery Revealed
- By Dipam on 03-18-21
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Scourge
- The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox
- By: Jonathan B. Tucker
- Narrated by: Patrick Cullen
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 276
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 211
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 214
Smallpox, the only infectious disease to have been eradicated, was one of the most terrifying of human scourges. It covered the skin with hideous, painful boils, killed a third of its victims, and left the survivors disfigured for life. In this riveting, often terrifying look at the history of smallpox, Jonathan B. Tucker tells the story of this deadly disease, the heroic efforts to eradicate it worldwide, and the looming dangers it still poses today.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Everyone should listen to this
- By Roderick on 07-26-06
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The Great War and the Birth of Modern Medicine
- A History
- By: Thomas Helling MD
- Narrated by: Mack Sanderson
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The Great War of 1914-1918 burst on the European scene with a brutality to mankind not yet witnessed by the civilized world. Modern warfare was no longer the stuff of chivalry and honor; it was a mutilative, deadly, and humbling exercise to wipe out the very presence of humanity. Suddenly, thousands upon thousands of maimed, beaten, and bleeding men surged into aid stations and hospitals with injuries unimaginable in their scope and destruction. Doctors scrambled to find some way to salvage not only life but limb.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but weirdly sexist?
- By J-Murphy on 07-19-22
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Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 574
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 407
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 406
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
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Patient Zero
- A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Can’t listen to the reader
- By Doug Clyde on 07-21-22
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
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Plagues upon the Earth
- Disease and the Course of Human History
- By: Kyle Harper
- Narrated by: Tim Fannon
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Waste of time...endless dribble.
- By Kathleen A. Massey on 12-29-21
By: Kyle Harper
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Deadly Outbreaks
- How Medical Detectives Save Lives Threatened by Killer Pandemics, Exotic Viruses, and Drug-Resistant Parasites
- By: Alexandra Levitt
- Narrated by: Julie McKay
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 377
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 344
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 345
Despite advances in health care, infectious microbes continue to be a formidable adversary to scientists and doctors. Vaccines and antibiotics, the mainstays of modern medicine, have not been able to conquer infectious microbes because of their amazing ability to adapt, evolve, and spread to new places. Terrorism aside, one of the greatest dangers from infectious disease we face today is from a massive outbreak of drug-resistant microbes.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not the top of the class...
- By Carolyn on 08-14-14
By: Alexandra Levitt
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The Viral Storm
- The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age
- By: Nathan Wolfe
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 715
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 616
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Story4 out of 5 stars 613
In The Viral Storm, award-winning biologist Nathan Wolfe tells the story of how viruses and human beings have evolved side by side through history; how deadly viruses like HIV, swine flu, and bird flu almost wiped us out in the past; and why modern life has made our species vulnerable to the threat of a global pandemic. Wolfe's research missions to the jungles have earned him the nickname "the Indiana Jones of virus hunters," and here Wolfe takes listeners along on his groundbreaking and often dangerous research trips - to reveal the surprising origins of the most deadly diseases....
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5 out of 5 stars
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a bio-geek's wet dream
- By Frey & Meatball on 04-20-12
By: Nathan Wolfe
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Rabid
- A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus
- By: Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2,292
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,995
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,999
The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Unexpected and Intriguing
- By Cynthia on 06-09-13
By: Bill Wasik, and others
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The Drug Hunters
- The Improbable Quest to Discover New Medicines
- By: Donald R. Kirsch PhD, Ogi Ogas PhD
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,048
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,047
The search to find medicines is as old as disease, which is to say as old as the human race. Through serendipity - by chewing, brewing, and snorting - some Neolithic souls discovered opium, alcohol, snakeroot, juniper, frankincense, and other helpful substances. Ötzi the Iceman, the 5,000-year-old hunter frozen in the Italian Alps, was found to have whipworms in his intestines and Bronze Age medicine, a worm-killing birch fungus, knotted to his leggings.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Aargh!
- By Curmud the prof on 05-20-17
By: Donald R. Kirsch PhD, and others
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In the Wake of the Plague
- The Black Death and the World It Made
- By: Norman F. Cantor
- Narrated by: Bill Wallace
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 354
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4 out of 5 stars 158
Much of what we know about the greatest medical disaster ever, the Black Plague of the fourteenth century, is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the final, awful end by respiratory failure are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was, and how it made history, remain shrouded in a haze of myths.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Don't waste time or money
- By Anne on 01-22-09
By: Norman F. Cantor
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Epidemic
- Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak
- By: Reid Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
In December 2013, a young boy in a tiny West African village contracted the deadly Ebola virus. The virus spread to his relatives, then to neighboring communities, then across international borders. The world's first urban Ebola outbreak quickly overwhelmed the global health system and threatened to kill millions. In an increasingly interconnected world in which everyone is one or two flights away from New York or London or Beijing, even a localized epidemic can become a pandemic. Ebola's spread sounded global alarms that the next killer outbreak is right around the corner.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Horrible writing.
- By Teresa Branstetter on 06-18-19
By: Reid Wilson
Related to this topic
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Patient Zero
- A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Can’t listen to the reader
- By Doug Clyde on 07-21-22
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
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Dissolving Illusions
- By: Suzanne Humphries, Roman Bystrianyk
- Narrated by: Tyler Behnke
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 261
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 226
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Story5 out of 5 stars 225
Today, we are told that medical interventions increased our lifespan and single-handedly prevented masses of deaths. But is this really true? Dissolving Illusions details facts and figures from long-overlooked medical journals, books, newspapers, and other sources. Using myth-shattering information, this book shows that vaccines, antibiotics, and other medical interventions are not responsible for the increase in lifespan and the decline in mortality from infectious diseases.