Deadly Companions: How microbes shaped our history - Rilegato

Crawford, Dorothy H.

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0192807196 ISBN 13: 9780192807199

Casa editrice: OUP Oxford, 2007

Riassunto

Ever since we started huddling together in communities, the story of human history has been inextricably entwined with the story of microbes. They have evolved and spread amongst us, shaping our culture through infection, disease, and pandemic. At the same time, our changing human culture has itself influenced the evolutionary path of microbes. Dorothy H. Crawford here shows that one cannot be truly understood without the other.

Beginning with a dramatic account of the SARS pandemic at the start of the 21st century, she takes us back in time to follow the interlinked history of microbes and man, taking an up-to-date look at ancient plagues and epidemics, and identifying key changes in the way humans have lived - such as our move from hunter-gatherer to farmer to city-dweller - which made us vulnerable to microbe attack.

Showing how we live our lives today - with increasing crowding and air travel - puts us once again at risk, Crawford asks whether we might ever conquer microbes completely, or whether we need to take a more microbe-centric view of the world. Among the possible answers, one thing becomes clear: that for generations to come, our deadly companions will continue to shape human history.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

Lucid and authoritative... crisply written narrative. (Wendy Moore, Sunday Telegraph)

Fascinating... Deadly Companions is authoritative, detailed and - despite its gruesome subject - never sensational. (PD Smith, The Guardian)

L'autore:

Dorothy Crawford is Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Edinburgh, where she is also Assistant Principal for the Public Understanding of Medicine. She was awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to medicine and higher education.

Books by the same author:
The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses

Su questa edizione

• Editore: OUP Oxford
• Data di pubblicazione: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0192807196
• ISBN 13: 9780192807199
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 272