"Plagues and People"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the book "Plagues and People" portrays the sweep of history not in terms of human control over other humans and the environment, but in terms of how the human body is controlled by illness.

From the Paper:

"The fragility of the human body and the lack of knowledge about the ways that infectious germs and microbes are spread, may be just as important as the ability of human beings to impact the world with their technological might. Most of us schooled in history have a vague knowledge of the fact that the Black Death was profoundly influential in reducing the population of Western Europe, and that American indigenous populations were decimated by European diseases to which they had not built up an immunological resistance. McNeill covers both subjects in his study, and suggests that the death toll of the native population in Northern and Central America might be even higher than once predicted. (McNeill wrote the first edition of his text in 1977. Then, the facts about this period may have been less widely known than they are today by most readers)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• McNeill, William H. Plagues and People. Anchor Press, 1976.

More papers on "Plagues and People":

• Comparison Essay # 7673 : "Blindness" and "The Plague"
• Research Paper # 27111 : "The Black Death and its Effects on Medieval Societies"
• Essay # 143667 : "Changes Wrought By The Black Death And The Renaissance In Western Civilization"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: