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1-Page Summary of Plagues And Peoples

Overall Summary

William H. McNeill argues that disease has influenced human history. He says there are two types of history: the study of big events, such as wars and political movements, and the study of how diseases affect people’s lives. Until 1976, historians focused on war and politics while ignoring other topics like epidemics or pandemics. However, McNeill changed this by showing that these topics are also important to understand when studying a country’s development over time.

The author begins by talking about how humans and parasites have evolved together for a long time. He then talks about the climate in Africa, where most of this evolution took place. The parasite thrived as much as humanity did because it was so hot there. Humans had to depend on the parasites for survival just like the parasites depended on them for survival, which is why they couldn’t destroy each other. This balance between humans and their “old friends” has been going on for a very long time until recently when things changed with modern medicine and technology that made us think we didn’t need our old friends anymore.

These changes were invisible to early humans, so they didn’t include them in their descriptions of themselves. Disease was a matter of health and safety, so it wasn’t included either. These balances followed humanity as the Ice Age receded and humankind began spreading out beyond its equatorial confines.

Agriculture helped humans to live together in communities, but it also attracted new pests. As a result, the number of diseases increased as well. Diseases that once wiped out whole communities became endemic (affecting limited groups) over time.

The large-scale technological and infrastructural changes that occurred after the Mongol empire, along with European travel, created better methods of transportation. These new forms of transportation made it easier to spread disease all over the world. The changes also affected cultural norms and traditions as well as early religious texts.

Diseases spread easily across the world, and they can kill people. But now we have ways to fight diseases with microscopes and vaccines. We are also more resilient than before to diseases that have been around for a long time. However, there will always be new diseases in the future because parasites will find new ways to infect us.

McNeill’s book does not center on humans. Instead, it focuses on the importance of various diseases and how they shaped society. Some of these diseases are listed in this section.

Preface

In the preface to his book, McNeill states that many doctors in 1976 believed infectious diseases were no longer a threat. However, he points out that AIDS is an epidemic and endemic disease. He also notes that we are still affected by the web of life.

Introduction

The author of a book on parasites outlines the scope and limitations of his study. He defines parasites as those that can be seen and those that cannot—macroparasites and microparasites.

Chapter 1: “Man the Hunter”

McNeill begins his book in the distant past, when early primates lived. He talks about how they interacted with their environment and humans’ place within that food chain.

Tracing the history of disease is difficult. Fossil records found in sub-Saharan Africa don’t tell us much about how diseases spread among early humans. McNeill speculates that by observing modern primates, we can learn more about prehistoric disease transmission. He writes that sub-Saharan Africa has a large number of protozoa, fungi and bacteria compared to other regions with colder climates.