A painting of an 18th-century doctor in Venice wearing a plague mask De Agostini/Getty Images
Pathogenesis
Jonathan Kennedy (Torva/Penguin)
FROM the impact of epidemics on the rise and fall of empires to the part played by the Black Death in hastening the transition from a feudal, religious society to a capitalist, secular one, humankind has always taken advantage of (or fallen victim to) “circumstances created by microbes”, argues a new and timely book.
Pathogenesis: How germs made history is the first book by Jonathan Kennedy, who teaches global public health at Queen Mary …
