History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Average customer rating:

Bio-Materialist History
Amazing How a Few Invisible Germs Changed the World
Bugs, germs and parasites
wordy, interesting
Epidemic is historic

Plagues and Peoples
William H. McNeill
Manufacturer: Anchor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0385121229
Release Date: 1977-10-11

Amazon.com

No small themes for historian William McNeill: he is a writer of big, sweeping books, from The Rise of the West to The History of the World. Plagues and Peoples considers the influence of infectious diseases on the course of history, and McNeill pays special attention to the Black Death of the 13th and 14th centuries, which killed millions across Europe and Asia. (At one point, writes McNeill, 10,000 people in Constantinople alone were dying each day from the plague.) With the new crop of plagues and epidemics in our own time, McNeill's quiet assertion that "in any effort to understand what lies ahead the role of infectious disease cannot properly be left out of consideration" takes on new significance.

Book Description

Upon its original publication, Plagues and Peoples was an immediate critical and popular success, offering a radically new interpretation of world history as seen through the extraordinary impact--political, demographic, ecological, and psychological--of disease on cultures. From the conquest of Mexico by smallpox as much as by the Spanish, to the bubonic plague in China, to the typhoid epidemic in Europe, the history of disease is the history of humankind. With the identification of AIDS in the early 1980s, another chapter has been added to this chronicle of events, which William McNeill explores in his new introduction to this updated editon.

Thought-provoking, well-researched, and compulsively readable, Plagues and Peoples is that rare book that is as fascinating as it is scholarly, as intriguing as it is enlightening. "A brilliantly conceptualized and challenging achievement" (Kirkus Reviews), it is essential reading, offering a new perspective on human history.

Customer Reviews:

Bio-Materialist History.......2007-10-11

Other reviews have captured the breadth of this powerful and provoking analysis; I can't add anything more. However, one unoticed aspect is how McNeill silently engages with Marx's economic materialist analysis by showing before you can have a base, let alone a superstructure, you must have control of or a standoff with infectious diseases. Thus in some ways, his dialectical interplay between macro- and micro- parasitism is in fact even more "radical" than Marx, if "radical' is used in the original sense (to get at the root). What is disappointing is that nobody has followed up since using McNeill's fertile insights.

Amazing How a Few Invisible Germs Changed the World.......2007-01-19

The main thesis of William McNeill's "Plagues and People" is that disease states and the general health of various regions of the world throughout history have shaped social practices, religious thinking and political structures -- even leading to the rise and fall of entire civilizations.

MacNeill's startling, well-defended claims are fascinating, eminently quotable and worthy of re-reading. For example, the Greeks cultivated olives and grapes, which require little manual labor. Their olive oil and wine was a valuable currency around the ancient world, saving their island from the terrible scourges of disease suffered by isolated, overworked agrarian societies without urban-honed immunological defenses. He goes so far as to say that this gave the Greeks the freedom to create their highly developed culture and unparalleled psychological insights.

McNeill's august text has influenced many other scholars, but the lay reader will find this romp through history, well, infectiously entertaining. Highly recommended.

Bugs, germs and parasites.......2006-10-11

Long before Jared Diamond captured headlines and dominated bestseller lists with 'Gun, Germs and Steel," the distinguished University of Chicago historian William McNeill published "Plagues and Peoples" that carried a similar message, albeit heavily focused on the "germs" part of the equation.

McNeill's central thesis is that bacteriology has had a profound impact on the course of human history and will continue to be a fundamental component of human affairs forever. In short, communicable disease can never be fully defeated. As human population continues to grow and as technology and social revolutions change our behavior and modes of interaction, micro parasites will exploit the new opportunities to infect and kills us. He argues that humans and micro parasites have been engaged in nearly continuous combat for advantage since human beings first left the cradle of civilization in Africa.

In making this argument, McNeill offers up an interesting explanation for Africa's pitiful condition up to the present day. He claims that humans developed in the heat and moisture of the African climate and over time an ecological balance developed between man and micro parasite. The well-established micro parasitic infections were nature's way of ensuring that no one species dominated. It was only when humans discovered clothing and began moving to colder climates that did not so easily support traditional disease did the battle for primacy between man and bug begin. McNeill states that even today Africa is an example of a well functioning ecological balance where the tsetse fly and the sleeping sickness it carries, for instance, still determines the range where humans can penetrate.

McNeill stresses that the history of disease is more than simply the story of epidemics and consequent die-off of large swaths of a population. He shows that micro parasites have touched a broad spectrum of human behavior and cultural development. For instance, he argues that today's major world religions, especially Christianity and Hinduism, thrived in the epidemic disease experiences of the first century AD. Those religions provided some explanation to the apparent randomness of sudden death from a variety of ailments and it offered the hope of salvage and eternal life after death. Moreover, McNeill argues that epidemic diseases that leveled Aztec and Incan culture accelerated the acceptance of Christianity in the New World by the native population. After all, what clearer sign of the power of the European God than the immunity of the white men from the diseases that swept through the vulnerable native communities.

McNeill also demonstrates how fear of disease - particularly the global cholera outbreak of the 1830s that killed so quickly and horribly - promoted massive public health programs that eventually had a tremendous impact on industrial and economic growth. The improved sanitary conditions allowed cities to flourish and workers to remain healthy and productive. He also argues that an army's ability to conquer disease in its ranks was likely more important than its ability to conquer its enemy in open combat. Until the 20th century, the vast majority of deaths in war were the result of disease, sometimes accounting for over tens times the combat deaths. The army that could prevent such devastation had an incredible advantage.

The major breakthrough for humans, McNeill argues, was the period 1300-1700. That four century period witnessed two critical transportation revolutions: the Eurasian land route developed by the Mongols and the European-led sea-based transportation. The relatively rapid dissemination of people meant the rapid dissemination of disease. The homogenization of disease between Europe, the Middle East, India and China led to the "domestication" of epidemic disease and marked a fundamental breakthrough in world history. This interaction led many diseases to transition from crippling epidemics to manageable endemics that took the form of childhood diseases; the same diseases that decimated the New World native populations when they were exposed in the 16th century.

Lastly, it is interesting to read how long it took humans to understand how disease was spread. The fact that germs are invisible obviously played a central role in their ability to survive. But just as importantly were the different varieties of contagion that confounded the ability to explain the spread of the illness. Because some diseases are spread by human contact, such as tuberculosis and small pox, and others by insects, such as the flea for bubonic plague and the mosquito for malaria and yellow fever, while others are spread by contaminated food and water, such as cholera, no simply solution seemed to work.

After reading "Plagues and Peoples" it is difficult to see world history the same as before. Modern scholars have poked a variety of holes in McNeill's arguments but the central thesis that bacteria and viruses have often been the causative agents of technological, social and political upheaval is difficult to refute.

wordy, interesting.......2006-06-16

William Mcneill presents a different and mind-expanding take on disease: microbes, humans, and governments all function similarly to facilitate their optimal survival and expansion. When the opportunistic structure gets too greedy, it may overwhelm the host. With time and familiarity, host and parasite usually come to an uneasy alliance, which allows the survival of each. If you read "Plagues and Peoples" with this thesis in mind, it is a very interesting book. If you lose sight of the thesis, it is too easy to get bogged down in the author's extremely baroque writing style. A few reviewers concluded that the book was hard for them to comprehend because they were high school aged readers. As an older adult, compulsive reader, with a lot of patience, I have to say I experienced the same problem with this book. I checked the biographical material on the author to see if English was his second language. I felt the book read as if translated. I found myself mentally simplifying almost every sentence, not because of the complexity of the idea being conveyed, but because of unnecessary verbage. "Plagues and Peoples" does contain loads information on the history of mankind and disease, within the framework of an interesting thesis. I just feel that simpler wording would have helped the book read smoother. Another very fascinating history of man's interaction with microbes which is much more reader friendly is "Men and Microbes".

Epidemic is historic.......2006-06-13

I bought this book from Amazon, and I read it here, in Brazil.This book is really good, about this subject.In fact, epidemic killed far more peoples than all wars and dictators together.Lenin or Hitler were small killers than smallpox.In fact, smallpox exterminated, more than 70% of indian population of Mexico in XVI Century.Illness decided wars, religions, poltics and economics for all the history.
This book is very good, but being writen in 1975, this book is now a little outdated.A new sexual desease(AIDS) became a reality and after DDT's banishment, malaria is back and strong in Africa,Asia and Latin America.

Average customer rating:

Pretty good, not the best
Replica a review by Jessica
pretty good book
Awesome Book!
One Of The Best

Rewind (Replica: The Plague Trilogy I)
Marilyn Kaye
Manufacturer: Skylark
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553487639
Release Date: 2002-02-12

Book Description

No one can identify the cause of the mysterious disease. There’s evidence that the bacteria infected human genes as much as a million years ago. Back in the prehistoric age. Back when dinosaurs roamed the land. Back when cavepeople communicated in grunts and gestures. And the bacteria has been dormant—until now.
Amy’s refined genes make her immune to this terrible plague. But when someone close to her shows symptoms of the disease, Amy will do anything to help find a cure. The only way: traveling back to the time when it all began . . .

Customer Reviews:

Pretty good, not the best.......2004-01-11

I think this book is okay, but NOT the best in the series. The books in the beginning of the series are really good, up until the the Plague Trilogy ones and the last one. Those ones get more and more rediculis. This book is still good if you are into far out stuff, like time traveling. Some of my favorite ones are the *special editions* like #6 And the two shall meet, and #18 Return of the Perfect girls. Overall I would REALLY recomend this series because they have a little bit of everything for everyone, romance, action, and alot of times mystery. Start at the begining of the series.

Replica a review by Jessica.......2003-12-31

Have you ever seen or heard of a human clone in your life? Well, if you have, you should read Replica by Marilyn Kaye who writes great books. Amy Candler is not a normal girl. She can do everything better than everyone else. Why is Amy's mom, Nancy, so worried about anyone finding out her secret? Read Replica to find out.
Amy Candler and Nancy live down in Southern California has a very tricky life she has a big secret no one can know. How does she deal with this secret? Does anyone find out her big secret? What happens to Amy?
"What is the big secret?" asked Amy's friend, Tasha. What is the big secret about Amy? Amy, the protagonist, has a big secret and no one can find out not even her best friend. Only her mom can know. To Amy, it is very hard keeping such a big secret away from everyone.
Amy and Nancy can't tell anyone anything that has to do with Amy not being. If anything gets out, Amy, Nancy, and anyone who know will be in serious danger. Amy does not want to put any of her friends in danger but, her secret is too big for everyone except Nancy. What will Amy do?
"Let's go to the park for a picnic!" Nancy's boyfriend, Brad mentions.
"What a great idea," Nancy replies. They go to the park and see a guy wearing ski masks and dressed in black. Who is moving to town? Nancy knows this person, but does Amy get to know this person? Is he here to help Amy, or is he here to find out more about Project Crescent?
Doesn't just reading this make you wonder where Amy and Nancy came from? Did Amy and her mom come from another planet, or are they plain old people. Read Replica and then you can read all about it.

pretty good book.......2002-11-17

A plague is striking mankind, but Amy and Andy and their fellow clones are immune. When they learn of a group of people that can send them back in time, Amy and Andy agree to it, and find themselves going back to the prehistoric era. Amy loses track of Andy but meets up with a group of neanderthals, and befriends a girl named Lucy. Lucy and her friends direct Amy to another camp, one that has aliens and a spaceship. I won't spoil the ending, but this book is fairly good, and you should read it.

Awesome Book!.......2002-08-06

This was such a great book! I finished it in about 3 hours I was just so hooked. In the 21st installment of the Replica series, Amy goes back to the prehostric era to try to find a cure for a deadly plague that is preading throuhgout the world. While there she meets alot of new friends and learns alot about what it was like to live in that time. Highly recommended and dont forget to read all the other Replica books along with Play: The Plague Trilogy Book Two and Fast Forward: The Plague Trilogy Book 3 that comes out in sometime this month I think.

One Of The Best.......2002-04-27

I think this is one of the best of the Replica series. It's cool how Marilyn Kaye introduces new concepts and ideas (aliens, time travel, dinosaurs...) in every book she writes, and it makes you wonder what she's going to come up with next.

Average customer rating:

Do they really think this?
Another Great Replica Book
Replica is still SUPER COOL
The second part to the Plague Trilogy

Play (Replica: The Plague Trilogy II)
Marilyn Kaye
Manufacturer: Skylark
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0553487647
Release Date: 2002-06-11

Book Description

Amy’s encounter with dinosaurs and cave dwellers—and aliens—was pretty wild. Now her quest to stop the spread of the infectious bacteria gets even more bizarre as she agrees to take another perilous voyage.

A voyage inside a plague-ridden human body.

If Amy survives being injected into this complex landscape where good cells are waging battle against bad cells, she could save millions of lives. But it’s a do-or-die world in there. . . .

Customer Reviews:

Do they really think this?.......2002-10-06

Real good addition to the Plague trilogy! And seriously interesting theme. I liked how Amy talked to all the genes and they had all their own sectors and everything...it made me think, if that is really what my body is like on the inside! Great book, recommend it to any Replica fan!

Another Great Replica Book.......2002-09-04

THIS BOOK ROCKED! AMY GOES INTO TASHA'S BODY TO TAKE OUT THE BAD GENE! THE PLAGUE! ERIC SAID I LOVE YOU TO AMY!!! AMY GOES INTO TASHA'S BODY AND FINDS BUSY GENES AND SQUATTERS(USELESS GENES WHO ARE OUTLAWS AND COMPLELTELY SCARED OF EVERYTHING) AND NO ONE WILL HELP HER! VERY VERY GOOD!!!

Replica is still SUPER COOL.......2002-07-06

Some people complain that the Replica books are getting shorter, and, okay, I admit it, they are getting shorter. But all that matters is that the books are COOL, right. Once again, Marylin Kaye writes another stunning Replica book, THE PLAGUGE TRILOG BOOK TWO, PLAY. In this book, Amy actually goes inside her best friend, to save her life. I can't wait for the third book in the PLAGUE TRILOGY!

The second part to the Plague Trilogy.......2002-06-11

Amy is back from her wild trip into the time of the cave dwellers in which she finds the antidote for her sick mother Nancy, but the plague is still spredding all over the place. Her long-time best friend Tasha now is also stricken witht the plague. When Amy goes to find the mysterious Mr.Devon to see if he could help her travel back in time again, she finds that he like all the other times in the past two years, has mysteriously disappeared once again. Amy soons finds out that the only way to save people from the plague is for her to take another bizarre journey---this time right into the plague ridden human body---where nothing is like it seems and cells are battling eachother. Its going to be another wild ride for Amy to save her friend Tasha and maybe millions of other people. Another great Replica book. Now I can't wait for the conclusion of the Plague Trilogy which like the other should be another great one!

Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Updated Edition With a New Preface

Average customer rating:

careless errors, mediocre conclusion
Medical-anthropological approach to HIV & TB illuminates roles of inequality and poverty in spread of disease
Wonderful etiological analysis, but unfounded conclusions.
Shining a Light
Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease

Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Updated Edition With a New Preface
Paul Farmer
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0520215443

Book Description

Paul Farmer has battled AIDS in rural Haiti and deadly strains of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the slums of Peru. A physician-anthropologist with more than fifteen years in the field, Farmer writes from the front lines of the war against these modern plagues and shows why, even more than those of history, they target the poor. This "peculiarly modern inequality" that permeates AIDS, TB, malaria, and typhoid in the modern world, and that feeds emerging (or re-emerging) infectious diseases such as Ebola and cholera, is laid bare in Farmer's harrowing stories of sickness and suffering.
Challenging the accepted methodologies of epidemiology and international health, he points out that most current explanatory strategies, from "cost-effectiveness" to patient "noncompliance," inevitably lead to blaming the victims. In reality, larger forces, global as well as local, determine why some people are sick and others are shielded from risk. Yet this moving account is far from a hopeless inventory of insoluble problems. Farmer writes of what can be done in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds, by physicians determined to treat those in need. Infections and Inequalities weds meticulous scholarship with a passion for solutions--remedies for the plagues of the poor and the social maladies that have sustained them.

Customer Reviews:

careless errors, mediocre conclusion.......2006-06-15

By claiming "social reform," Farmer contradicts his stance as an American citizen: Haiti has no money to support its own citizens, that's why the US and others are doing Haiti's job. But, the US has to care for its own citizens as well therefore has to first work on its own AIDS patients within its boundary. If the US does that as its social reform, Haiti instantly dries up.

Irritating mistakes somehow got through inspection: PAligre Dam? PEligre? (P. 174) PuertO Plata? PueltA? (P. 119)

Medical-anthropological approach to HIV & TB illuminates roles of inequality and poverty in spread of disease.......2005-07-11

Farmer, a physician-anthropologist and activist, examines both the way that poverty and inequality result in the spread of HIV and TB today and the flawed justifications for inequitable access to treatment. His ethnographic analysis provides a powerful complement to standard epidemiological work, and this treatise on the danger as well as the immorality of inequity in medical care is largely convincing.

Farmer illustrates several broad themes effectively with case studies from Haiti and Peru. One is the idea that most studies overemphasize individual agency, failing to recognize serious "structural" factors, such as the pressure that extreme poverty exerts on people to engage in unhealthy behaviors and the problems introduced by economic inequality. (One example of the latter is that in unequal countries like Peru, second-line TB drugs are available because of demand by the rich, so doctors also prescribe them to the poor who can only afford them intermittently, which generates drug-resistant strains of the disease.) Another theme is that people in rich nations tend to place heavy weight on "strange" cultural beliefs and customs in explaining high disease prevalence, whereas actual epidemiological research tends to show that these factors carry little weight relative to poverty-related factors. While he uses AIDS in Haiti to illustrate this tendency, it applies perfectly to popular Western conceptions of AIDS in Africa: the popular media tend to emphasize cultural practices such as wife inheritance and a strong sex drive, whereas epidemiological research fails to support a major role for these.

A third theme, which Farmer often trumpets but not as convincingly, is that many of the trade-offs voiced by policymakers are ultimately false. One example is the question of whether to treat tuberculosis with drugs or prevent it (e.g., by investing in economic development). He then uses the success of his clinic in Haiti as an example of both treating and preventing TB. The ultimate argument is that the wealthy have no right to withhold their wealth from the poor. However, he gives us no clear sense of how the resources to generalize this to the world at large should be marshaled. While the trade-off may be philosophically false, the practical application is unclear.

But even without a plan of action, Farmer illuminates key problems in the analysis of infectious disease spread and makes a convincing plea to share the wealth (and the technology).

Wonderful etiological analysis, but unfounded conclusions. .......2004-07-24

Anyone in the public health arena has heard (or even read) of Paul Farmer. The Harvard MD/PhD (Anthropolgy) is indeed a passionate and competant professional who has fresh drive and leads a commendable life in service to humanity. This book seems to be his most popular work (at least on campus of major public health colleges) and it deserves attention and analysis.

Farmer gives systematic treatment of HIV and TB etiology and prevalence in the US and Haiti. More importantly, how those diseases affect the poor in inequitable ways. Peppered with intimate anecdotes and cutting analysis, the book brings hard ideas with the immediacy of the individual plight. He debunks myth of AIDS early history and establishes perspetive for the disease to be viewed/studied in light of the poor and the strucutral violence that (he deems) causes the propensity of the disease in the lower levels of society. He offers solutions and pleas for attention to these 'new plagues' so that the effects can be mitigated for the sake of all humanity.

There are some issues with that perspective. Of course every author brings inherent bias to the writing (either intentional or not), but Farmer makes no apology for his worldview and dismisses opinions of others who are even within the sientific community as he. John Stuart Mill (in "On Liberty") would say that such an attitude is likened to assuming infallibility (which Farmer more or less accuses the attitude of the 'rich' toward the modern plagues). His neo-Marxist tendency completely undermines the state of the world and he therefore addresses his problems from a "the way it should be" approach. That is his prerogative, but taking such an attitude means that his ideas will remain just that: ideas. His lack of pragmatism borders a silent taint of militarism and that approach rarely attracts policy makers, even those on the left.

Farmer assumes that a preponderence of evidence precludes a serious analysis of personal aganecy. No one would argue the conflict of structural violence and the inherent effects on personal agency. Yet, the fact remains that it does exist and it at least needs to be addressed in a thorough matter in order to be a fair treatment of the subject matter.

Furthermore, he needed to address the distal factors (i.e etiology and biology of the diseases) with the proximate (i.e. socio-econimics, etc...) for the book to be of more interest to the lay person. Despite my reservations, it is still a great book to get the reader "out of the box" and see AIDS and TB with the urgency it deserves. Yet, this type of book needs to be in the hands of the lay, and this recommendation would help.

Lastly, Farmer claims on several occasions a foundation of political economy in the analysis of his subject. He is a physician and anthropologist, and without the concurrent opinions of a political-economist to back up his claims, the ideas therein are weak at best. His political-economic opinions may be in line with greats like Marx and Henry George, but he cannot assume the validity of his assumptions just by telling the readership he his resting on such evidence. Several other leading political-economic ideas stand in direct opposition to his conclusions of goverment fixing all health problems to his liking.

All in all, it is hard not to be moved by Farmer's compelling treatment of such horrendous plagues on humanikind. Yet, passion does not always equal pragmatic and working solutions. Therefore, his work will hopefully inspire those who can take his passion to offer clear and viable solutions in the war on these plagues.

Michael Jewell, MPH

Shining a Light.......2004-01-02

Dr. Farmer sums up what you can hear in his lectures (he is an amazing speaker), read in journals, and hear in his interviews: The "modern day plagues" result directly from Structural Violence. I read this book for my culture and health class and could not put it down. He writes with an eloquence unheard of in most anthropologists while at the same time with the passion of a deeply concerned physician. Although in some points the book can get repetitive (as case studies overlap) it is a spectacular, enlightening read that I would recommend to anyone, particularly potential (and current) medical anthropologists.

Complex causality: why people are really at risk for disease.......2000-06-08

Finally Dr. Farmer couples his lucid historical, political and economic analyses of the conditions that put the poor at risk for bad health outcomes, with a plainly indignant calling out of healthcare professionals and healthcare organizations to make honest efforts to understand and remedy conditions which would never be tolerated among the well off in Western nations. In his goundbreaking, earlier books, "AIDS and Accusations," and "The Uses of Haiti," Dr. Farmer matter of factly discusses the global and local structural conditions and misrepresentations which led to the spread of disease and persistent, dismal health conditions in Haiti. In "Infections and Inequality," Dr. Farmer adds moral overtones to incisive, sociopolitical analysis and his characteristic accounts of individuals suffering from disease. The book consequently provides a powerful reflection from a man who has worked in some of the world's poorest regions on what the benefits of medical technology mean for people who have not traditionally had access to them. A powerful, informative read that clearly reflects the years of experience of a physician who has wrestled with the global responsibility of caring for the those who are worst off. An obligatory read for anyone even thinking of working for the impoverished of the world.

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The Plague Ship
G. A. Henty
Manufacturer: Robinson Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Historical Fiction | History & Historical Fiction | Teens | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1590871324

Book Description

Unedited, unabridged, original format editions with original colored cover art, these Henty books reproduce the original in careful detail.

Customer Reviews:

This is not about yellow fever or black goddesses.......2007-07-25

I bought this book because I was looking for something about the epidemiology of yellow fever. There is nothing about yellow fever in this book -- it is mentioned only three times, in passing -- and even less about some putative "black goddess" of cholera, who may or may not have ever been worshipped.

Catchy title, though.

Much of the information is out of date. Patarroyo's malaria vaccine, for example, was a failure. Zimbabwe is no longer an attractive tourist destination.

The argument that tropical diseases have to make compromises to travel in temperate climes is hardly news. All organisms have to make compromises.

In any case, as regards fears that tropical diseases will spread to temperate climes -- not a popular issue when this book was published in 1996 -- the prophylactic is not to attack global warming but to make people rich. Rich people don't get the plague, no matter how warm they are.

Not worth it.......2004-02-09

I am a student working on a project/report for this book and sadly i had volutarily purchased it thinking i was in for a good book. Not the case. Although it is informative, most people aren't university professors reading up on their evolution. It is DULL and i ended up reading about 2/3 of the book because the project was due soon and you probably dont care, anyway i have since read the whole book and it bored me into writing this. Wills absolutely does not succeed in fulfilling its title. So if you are doing a project DO NOT PICK THIS BOOK. NEVAR. EVAR. sry Chris Wills...u did it to yourself...

A singularly dull read.......2000-12-18

_Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution of People and Plagues_ could have been a penetrating examination of the relationship between humanity and disease. Christopher Willis certainly had fertile ground to work, but the book ends up being a dull and pedantic trudge that fails to bring the best of the academic or the popular to the reader.

The text wanders through evolutionary biology and human history without any real sense of direction. The biographies and personal histories read like indifferent `human interest' stories injected into an otherwise uninteresting science news broadcast.

Read this book.......2000-02-06

Wills does not provide an exhaustive review of diseases, but selects illustrative examples. I find this preferable to a less in-depth discussion of a large number of diseases. His incorporation of personal experiences, and theoretical speculations on disease and diversity add breadth and depth to this book. I thought it was excellent.

Stilted prose.......1998-10-02

While the subject of the book is fascinating, and there is some interesting information in the book, the book would greatly benefit from substantial editing, with emphasis on writing style.
The book suffers from a number of writing faults. If it's a book about "the coevolution of people and plagues" (its subtitle), why are the author's world travels constantly thrown at the reader? "One of my most searing memories is of being surrounded on a street in Hyderabad by a crowd of lepers.... I reached Vellore, a cheerful and relatively clean market town, after a hectic 120-kilometre bus ride from Madras...."
If the reader makes it past the travelogue, the reader will still have to get through the prose and commas. "Yet the AIDS virus, despite its fearsome aspects, has had just as much difficulty in spreading through the human population as syphilis or typhoid, and has had to make equally dramatic compromises in order to retain its ability to spread" is a typical sentence.
The subject would be much better served if the author could stay on topic and the book was presented as an adventure to be discovered and enjoyed instead of making each sentence (and the book itself) a puzzle to be penetrated.

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A Plague of Dreams (Tomorrow People)
Jim Mortimore
Manufacturer: Big Finish Productions Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 1844350819

Black Death and Other Putrid Plagues of London (Of London Series)

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Black Death and Other Putrid Plagues of London (Of London Series)
Natasha Narayan
Manufacturer: Watling St., Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1904153011

A Plague of Paradoxes: AIDS, Culture, and Demography in Northern Tanzania (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)

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Used to Develop New Communication Strategy for Tanzania

A Plague of Paradoxes: AIDS, Culture, and Demography in Northern Tanzania (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture)
Philip W. Setel
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

AIDS | Disorders & Diseases | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0226748863

Book Description

Since recording its first AIDS cases in 1983, Tanzania has reported nearly 90,000 more to the World Health Organization—more than any other country in Africa. As AIDS spread, the devastating syndrome came to be known simply as ugonjwa huo: "that disease."

The AIDS epidemic has forced Africans to reflect upon the meaning of traditional ideas and practices related to sexuality and fertility, and upon modernity and biomedicine. In A Plague of Paradoxes, anthropologist Philip Setel observes Tanzania's Chagga people and their attempts to cope with and understand AIDS—the latest in a series of crises over which they feel they have little, if any, control.

Timely and well-researched, A Plague of Paradoxes is an extended case study of the most serious epidemic of the twentieth century and the cultural circumstances out of which it emerged. It is a unique book that brings together anthropology, demography, and epidemiology to explain how a particular community in Africa experiences AIDS.

Customer Reviews:

Used to Develop New Communication Strategy for Tanzania.......2006-12-20

Used this book to inform the development of a new HIV and AIDS Communication strategy for Tanzania. My colleagues were very impressed with the depth of cultural understanding.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding the complexities of communicating about HIV and AIDS.

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