Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy

2 reviews

fkshg8465's review against another edition

informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I learned so much! I generally enjoy books like this - a record of world history through a single lens. This was better than some of the others I’ve read like this book. I found it informative, engaging, and thought provoking. It evoked anger, sadness, and the delight that comes with the connection of synapses. I really appreciated the last chapter on modern day plagues of poverty, because so much is preventable. For smart, college bound students or anyone with a big heart for the world and a mind for making things work could come up with some great projects from the problems presented in this book. The future can be different if enough people care. Let us care together!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

haljonesy's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.25

 Pathogenesis truly is a history of the world. It encompasses ancient history, with Greeks and Romans, and advances up to the present-day. Kennedy examines the effects of epidemics on human society and demonstrates how certain events in history were, at least in part, caused by a viral disease.

One of the most interesting parts of Kennedy's analysis was the way he connected the resistance that some societies had to certain diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever, and how those resistances led to institutions such as slavery. I have generally been taught that one of the main reasons that Africans were enslaved by Europeans and Americans was because of scientific racism, but Kennedy suggests that scientific racism arose as a way to justify enslavement that was already ongoing, and that Africans were preferred as slaves because of their resistance to such diseases as malaria that wreaked havoc in southern states, which indentured Europeans had no immunity against.

Kennedy also drew clear connections between viruses and poverty, demonstrating ways in which people in power (i.e., people with money) took advantage of those who had no easy way out of their destitution, which in turn bred diseases due to poor sanitation and health conditions. Cholera was extremely well covered in relation to people living in poverty, especially in England. Particularly poignant was Kennedy's examination of post-colonial African nations, and how long-lasting the effects of colonialism are.

The main focus of this book is on the United Kingdom and United States, as well as the peoples they colonized. Ancient Greece and Rome are fairly well analyzed, as well as parts of Africa, and China. I listened to the audio version of this book, and did enjoy the narrator, though I somewhat wish I'd read the print book so that I could make notes about certain points that interested me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Slavery, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, and War

Minor: Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit