Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu

According to Alcabes, an essayist and expert in public health, ""epidemics fascinate us""; hopeful projection or not, his study provides enough gruesome details and unexpected sidelights to captivate history fans. Looking first at the plague that swept Europe in recurring waves from 1300 to 1700 (""the model for the epidemic""), Alcabes sorts through the widespread confusion over its cause and method of transmission. Rubbing up against theories of ""contagion, intemperate air, poisoned water, astrological influence"" and ""deviltry,"" accounts of brutal pogroms and apocalyptic dread, Alcabes makes the science behind the history-as in a description of infected fleas regurgitating the plague bacteria into a victim's system-just as gripping. Cholera reached epidemic proportions in England in 1831, when efforts to clean sewage from the streets poisoned the Thames; at the time, experts were focused on foul air, not foul water. Turning to the present, Alcabes chastises the use of ""epidemic"" for behavioral issues like obesity or teen sex, and the panic over isolated events like the Anthrax outbreak (only 22 cases), while 9 million cases of tuberculosis go untreated every year. Showing how even epidemics hinge on societal attitudes and expectations, Alcabes presents an engrossing, revealing account of the relationship between progress and plague.