Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Microbes as Agents of Change -- Viruses -- Bacteria -- Protozoa -- Chapter 2. Plague -- The Justinian Plague and Its Effect on the Roman Empire -- The Black Death Begins -- Decline of European Feudalism and Cause of Revolts -- God’s Wrath, the Church, and Persecutions -- Failure of Medicine and Its Effects -- The Influence of the Black Death on Medieval Art -- Cause of Human Evolution? -- The Final Round of Plague -- Chapter 3. Smallpox -- The Downfall of the Roman Empire and Rise of Christianity -- Exploration Creates a Pandemic -- Africa -- The Americas -- Oceania -- Creator of Saints and Deities -- From Variolation to Vaccination—A New Hope -- Eradication and the Cold War -- Chapter 4. Malaria -- Ancient Killer -- White Man’s Grave and the Scramble for Africa -- Mosquitoes and the Panama Canal -- Paralysis of 20th-Century Armies -- Permanent Changes to Our Genome and Blood -- Chapter 5. Tuberculosis -- The Industrial Revolution and the Great White Plague -- A Romantic Way to Die -- Convalescent Therapy Is Popularized -- Medical Microbiology Is Born -- Pasteurization, Chest X-Rays, and Other Tools for Preventing and Diagnosing TB -- Quest for Antibiotics and Their Failure -- Chapter 6. Typhus -- Early Descriptions of Epidemic Typhus -- Typhus and the Protestant Reformation -- The Thirty Years’ War -- A Thorn in Napoleon’s Side -- The Irish Potato Famine and Immigration -- World War I -- The Russian Revolution -- World War II -- Chapter 7. Yellow Fever -- The Arrival of the Great American Plague -- Philadelphia Epidemic of 1793 -- The Haitian Revolution and Louisiana Purchase -- Plague of the American South -- Identifying the Carrier -- The Search for a Vaccine -- Chapter 8. Cholera -- Origins and Overview of the Seven Pandemics -- Cause of Social Unrest -- Religious Freedom, Imperialism, and Public Health -- The Sanitation Revolution Begins -- The Lifesaving Effects of Rehydration -- The Beginning of the End for Miasma -- Modern Cholera -- Chapter 9. Influenza -- A Virus and Its Hosts -- The Quiet Catastrophe -- The Real-Life Jurassic Park -- A New Paradigm in Vaccine Programs -- Chapter 10. Polio -- Psychological Damage to a Generation -- The Sanitation Paradox -- An Explosion of Medical Innovations -- Polio and the March of Dimes -- Disability Rights -- Race to the Vaccine -- Chapter 11. HIV/AIDS -- HIV Origins—A Long Road to the Truth -- Spread of HIV in Africa and to the World -- The “4-H Club” and Its Effect on Haiti -- A Modern Leprosy -- Medical Privacy -- End of the Sexual Revolution -- Another Tragedy in Africa -- Future of HIV/AIDS -- Chapter 12. The Future of Epidemic Disease -- Antibiotic Resistance—Potential for Catastrophe -- The Power of Bad Science -- Notes -- Index -- About the Author -- .
