Healthcare professionals stand near a COVID-19 triage tent in Lisbon, Portugal, April 2020. Patricia de Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images
The Great Shadow
by Susan Wise Bauer, St. Martin’s Press
Publishing a book on the history of disease seems timely given the ongoing challenges with public health. As we face yet another tough winter in the Northern Hemisphere, we reflect on the previous harsh winter during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our vulnerability to illness has never been more evident.
Introducing The Great Shadow: A History of How Disease Shapes Our Actions, Thoughts, Beliefs, and Purchases, authored by Susan Wise Bauer. This work chronicles how disease influences individual lives and collective societal behaviors over centuries. From our guilty pleasures to our shopping habits, microbial influences are always at play.
However, the subject isn’t entirely new; similar works have emerged since the pandemic, such as Jonathan Kennedy’s comprehensive essays, along with updated versions of Sean Martin’s A Short History of Disease and Frederick F. Cartwright and Michael Biddis’s Disease and History. So, what sets this work apart?
The distinction lies in Bauer’s emphasis. She explores the shift from the “Hippocratic universe” to our contemporary understanding steeped in “germ theory.” The former relies on antiquated beliefs regarding bodily humors and inner balance, while the latter focuses on scientific evidence.
A key revelation of this book is the prolonged timeline for this transition; the acknowledgment that microbes cause disease took centuries to establish and only gained traction in the late Victorian era—resulting in millions of unnecessary deaths.
Yet, have we completely moved past Hippocratic medicine? The Great Shadow doubles as a discussion piece. Each chapter unveils a timeline, navigating through urbanization, the Black Death, and the trenches of World War I, before linking historical events to current beliefs surrounding disease.
At its best, this research provokes contemplation. Are we surprised that 19th-century anti-vaccination advocates resemble today’s skeptics? At its worst, some discussions may prove perplexing. For instance, Bauer confesses that following COVID-19, she avoided checkups out of fear of being criticized for her weight gain—a worrying reflection on the pressures surrounding health discussions.
Nevertheless, glimmers of insight are present in The Great Shadow. Despite moments of verbose writing, Bauer efficiently crafts narratives from historical archives. Her account of early germ theory proponents like Alexander Gordon and Ignace Semmelweis, often marginalized for their views, merits cinematic adaptation.
The final, memorable aspect of this book discusses our shift from superstition to science, presenting the current crisis termed the Third Epidemiological Transition. Bauer notes that we face not only epidemic failures with antibiotics but also the rapid emergence of novel diseases for which vaccines and treatments are yet unavailable, facilitated by modern global travel.
Peter Hoskin is the Books and Culture Editor at Prospect magazine.
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Source: www.newscientist.com
