History of Pandemics in the World

Author: Wang Xudong, Meng Qinglong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: This book is the official publication version of the research (scientific research achievements) of the key project "Reports on Epidemics from History" by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It is titled "Epidemics in History, Countermeasures, and Their Impact on Human Society." The total word count is approximately 280,000. The book includes over a hundred illustrations combined with its content. The content is divided into three parts:
Part I, Unveiling Pandora's Box: This section elaborates on some major epidemics in history, covering their conceptual formation, pathological causes, symptoms, epidemiological characteristics, origins, or clarifications, as well as their spread and global prevalence, population losses. It also explores the relationship between epidemics and the natural environment and human social behavior to a certain extent or scope.
Part II, Life and Death Struggles in Hell: From the perspective of different epidemics, this section describes the long and arduous journey of humanity's fight against epidemics from ancient to modern times.
Part III, Changing History in a Dynamic Society: This section explains the role epidemics played in the development of human society and the impact of this role on the course of history. Through a wealth of historical facts, it reveals the various ways in which major epidemics influenced history, outlining the undeniable objective role of epidemics as a historical factor in the process of human social development, serving as a warning for the present and future.
In numerous historical works, epidemics are merely a few brushstrokes in the social upheavals caused by human political, economic, and military activities, at most no more than (accompanying consequences) of such activities. This leads readers to a misconception that history should be this way—epidemics are the concern of doctors, having no direct relationship with the development of human society. Epidemics become the "escapee of historians," and one direct consequence is that people cannot find truly valuable lessons from the past when dealing with epidemics.
Furthermore, when making decisions about major issues related to the development of contemporary society based on historical experience, people often overlook the potential role of epidemics, as well as a series of other important factors related to them, such as the environment, human behavior, and the environment. Learning from history reveals the rise and fall. If even epidemics—a small issue affecting the basic unit of society (family and individual) to the larger scale of society (ethnicity or nation)—are an unavoidable threat to survival and cannot serve as a lesson in history, how can we speak of a complete understanding of the rise and fall?
Clearly, facing the series of issues arising from today's immense population pressure in various fields of development, it is essential to learn from history. Therefore, "mending the fence after the sheep have been stolen," to re-discover, examine, analyze, and explore the historical issues of epidemics from multiple angles, a full perspective, and across disciplines, has become an urgent and necessary trend.
Based on the above background and understanding, experts from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted research on the history of major global epidemics, resulting in this book. They hope it can present readers with a comprehensive, scientific, and authoritative history of global epidemics.