Publishers Weekly
★ 01/23/2023
Revisiting the theme of William H. McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples (1976), sociologist and public health scholar Kennedy debuts with a virtuoso analysis of the fallout from encounters between deadly viral and bacterial pathogens and human populations that lacked immunity. Looking back to prehistory, he argues that Homo sapiens supplanted Eurasian Neanderthals 40,000 years ago by virtue of pathogens they brought from Africa, not superior intelligence. Elsewhere, he contends that epidemics depopulated the Roman Empire and led to the rise of Christianity and Islam, while the Black Death initiated Britain’s transition from feudalism to capitalism. A smallpox epidemic allowed Hernan Cortés to conquer the immunologically naive Aztec Empire in 1520, but Africa’s endemic malaria killed Europeans so quickly that they were unable to colonize the continent until quinine became available in the 19th century. And while modern sanitation and medicine have triumphed over cholera and other pathogens, Covid-19 highlighted the “stark inequalities” that still result in millions of poor and marginalized people dying each year from preventable infections. Though there’s a one-size-fits-all aspect to Kennedy’s thesis that disease-bearing microbes are responsible for the modern world, he marshals a wealth of surprising scholarship in lucid and succinct prose. The result is a fascinating look at history from the perspective of its tiniest protagonists. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
[Kennedy] wrangles an astonishing breadth of material into easily accessible, plain prose. . . . Even readers familiar with the material will find [Pathogenesis] fascinating. . . . Kennedy will leave readers galvanized by the time they flip to the last page, having assured us that we could win the narrative back from germs—if we’re able to muster the political will to do so. Pathogenesis puts us in our rightful tiny place in the universe as this great, big—and terrifying, at times—world spins. But, Kennedy reminds us, we are not helpless.”—The Washington Post
“Full of amazing facts . . . Pathogenesis doesn’t only cover thousands of years of history—it seeks radically to alter the way the reader views many of the (often very well-known) events it describes.”—The Guardian
“Well-timed . . . compelling . . . Kennedy’s book manages to end on a somewhat hopeful note. Yes, our trajectory is defined by microbes. But it’s also influenced by our reactions to them—and our acknowledgment of their power.”—The Atlantic
“Entertaining . . . Kennedy marshals a dizzying range of material, from the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe to the rise of the slave trade.”—The Economist
“[Pathogenesis] shines when it brings cutting-edge science to bear on these questions, something that Kennedy treats with great care. . . . Pathogenesis shows a microbial world that is as complex, dynamic, and alive as the human one, and just as consequential.”—Financial Times
“Great historical changes are often conceived of as being brought about by the genius and tenacity of great men, or occasionally women, but Jonathan Kennedy argues that germs are largely responsible for everything, from the decline of the Neanderthals to the current poverty of sub-Saharan Africa. . . . [He] offers a different lens to view many of the big events of the past.”—Associated Press
“The fluency of Kennedy’s narration is remarkable, weaving Tolkien, Game of Thrones, and Monty Python into memorable and accessible explanations of genetics, evolutionary biology and demography. . . . Impressive and enjoyable.”—The Spectator
“A virtuoso analysis of the fallout from encounters between deadly viral and bacterial pathogens and human populations that lacked immunity. . . . The result is a fascinating look at history from the perspective of its tiniest protagonists.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“It’s not often you pick up a book that promises to alter your entire understanding of the story of humanity.”—Lit Hub
“Thrilling and eye-opening . . . Jonathan Kennedy explores the enormous role played by some of the tiniest life on earth: the power of plagues in shaping world history.”—Lewis Dartnell, author of The Knowledge
“This book challenges some of the greatest clichés about colonialism and leaves you wondering why you ever gave them the time of day. . . . A revelation.”—Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland
“A fascinating, readable, and superbly researched account of how infectious diseases have shaped our history.”—David Christian, author of Origin Story
Kirkus Reviews
2023-03-24
World history through the eyes of microbes.
Bacteria may be microscopic and easy to disregard, writes Kennedy, a professor of politics and global health, but they’re ubiquitous and astonishingly prolific—outweighing humankind, for one thing, by 1,000 times in terms of total mass. However, along with viruses, bacteria shape the fortunes of all life on Earth. It’s hardly news that this includes the course of human history. In 1976, William McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples made a strong case for the radically important role of disease in the rise and fall of civilizations and as a significant force in propelling innovation and warfare. Kennedy’s book is in some ways redundant, but it is well grounded scientifically and draws on recent literature to examine, for instance, the effect of disease on the eventual hegemony of Homo sapiens over other early humans. If “for early humans, the Eastern Mediterranean region must have seemed like a cursed realm, the Paleolithic equivalent of Tolkien’s Mordor,” the arrival of human-borne pathogens into Neanderthal populations must have been even more deadly. Plagues in third-century Rome helped an obscure offshoot of Judaism gain supremacy over pantheistic religions whose gods, by allowing such calamities, were proven weak; without those murderous bacteria, Christianity might never have established itself. Kennedy charts the interaction of climate change with disease—the reappearance, for example, of the bubonic plague after a long absence as the Northern Hemisphere warmed and pest-bearing rodents proliferated, just in time for the Mongol Empire to spread the pandemic through its widespread raids—and he helps puzzle out a long-standing mystery concerning the Columbian conquests: “How do we explain the almost unilateral flow of pathogens from Europe to the Americas?” The answer is nuanced but reveals a great deal about how so many great Native American empires were so quickly subdued.
Of interest to students of world history, with lessons to ponder for our own pandemic-hobbled time.