Deadly Companions How Microbes Shaped Our History

by Crawford, Dorothy H.

• ISBN13: 9780199561445
• ISBN10: 0199561443
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

They were here long before us. But the advent of human beings, with our complex culture, our domestication of animals, our huddling together into towns and cities, our wars and well-plied trade routes, have given some microbes whole new opportunities and lifestyles which for us have proved deadly. The results have included malaria, bubonic plague, AIDs, and bird flu. The diseases spread by microbes have decimated populations and profoundly shaped human history, while our behaviour has in turn altered theirs. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Dorothy Crawford is Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, where she is also Assistant Principal for the Public Understanding of Medicine. She was awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to medicine and higher education.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
How It All Began	p. 9
Our Microbial Inheritance	p. 29
Microbes Jump Species	p. 54
Crowds, Filth and Poverty	p. 82
Microbes Go Global	p. 112
Famine and Devastation	p. 139
Deadly Companions Revealed	p. 161
The Fight Back	p. 184
Conclusion: Living Together	p. 211
Glossary	p. 216
Notes and References	p. 228
Further Reading	p. 238
Index	p. 241
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