Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History |
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Author:
Dorothy H. Crawford
By OUP Oxford
Average Customer Rating: 
List Price: £16.99
Our Price: £7.64
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 Scholarly, interesting, well-written and alarming, 2008-01-23
The author is a professor of microbiology who has written an excellent book for the lay-person interested in the struggle between microbes and humans. It's partly a history of the ever-changing balance between the two from early man as a hunter/gatherer to modern urbane life. She makes it very clear how the development of agriculture and the gathering together of people into towns has increased our vulnerability to a greater range of organisms.
At times it reads almost like a war as viruses, bacteria and fungi rapidly mutate and sometimes collaborate to defeat our immune systems. I have a biological background but learned a lot about the latest microbiological research which is revealing just how well these microbes are doing in infecting us to their benefit. After reading this book I feel more alarmed at just how vulnerable we are to new microbes evolving with lethal power, but it also made me think more about how to avoid helping them by,for example, taking unnecessary antibiotics or failing to complete a course of treatment.
 GOOD SCIENCE,BAD HISTORY, 2008-09-23
This would be an excellent work were it not for the careless historical errors.Prof Crawford seems to think for example that the little ice age began in 1450 and that British rule in India ended in 2007.It would be tedious to list all the mistakes,so just take page 79 where the author mixes up Justinian & Constantine and apparently thinks that the western Roman Empire still existed in the former' s time.Was this book checked by a historian at all ? The poor grasp of elementary historial fact is a great pity,otherwise this book would deserve high marks
Not quite dull, 2008-03-04
History is full of fascinating stories of how infectious diseases have impacted upon the course of human history. Some of these stories are relatively small ones, like the appalling effect of poor sanitation on the lives of the poor in sprawling urban societies. Other stories have epic sweep:the Black Death, or the devastating introduction of Old World diseases to the New World.
Sadly, the author of this book couldn't tell a good story to save her life. She is extremely well-informed, very good at explaining the microbiology of the illnesses she describes, and if you read this book you will be a better educated person. But that simplicity of expression comes at a price. The written style is flat, there is no sense of narrative, no story-telling, and some gripping stories pass by with all the excitement of an auditor's report. The overall effect is of a university lecturer trying very hard to make a dull subject interesting; in doing so this book almost succeeds in making a fascinating subject dull.
It may be a matter of taste: here is a scientist writing about history. Perhaps I would have preferred to read a book written by a historian about science.
But it's interesting enough. I don't regret having bought it. And I'm now *much* better informed about Yersina Pestis.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 614.4
EAN: 9780192807199
ISBN: 0192807196
Label: OUP Oxford
Manufacturer: OUP Oxford
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2007-10-25
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Studio: OUP Oxford |
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