![]() ![]() She also adds a chapter on the dancing plague of medieval times, which was unusual in that people treated the victims kindly and tried to help. The author then moves on to cover the more well-known horrors, including bubonic plague, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, polio, and leprosy. ![]() She begins with a second-century plague during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, which was probably smallpox and no doubt contributed to Rome’s eventual decline. On the other hand, many of her heroes or things they did were “cool,” a word that should have been banished from the text along with “fun.” However, Wright has done her homework. So we learn that poor John Snow, the hero who persuaded London authorities in the 1850s to turn off the Broad Street pump and thus save the neighborhood from cholera, was a boring fellow she would never want to spend time with. Wright ( It Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History, 2015) injects her persona throughout the book, using asides to assert her opinions and invite reader agreement. ![]() A lightweight history of plagues from an author who is “invested in this study…because I think knowing how diseases have been combatted in the past will be helpful in the future.” ![]()
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