Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan Kennedy

4 reviews

gretchenplz's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I never thought I would be so riveted by a book about plagues...

I'm gonna say something nasty and say that all those bemoaning, "I thought I was going to read about plagues, not history," either lack reading comprehension or just refuse to Get It. This was such an in-depth look at how it's not JUST plagues — it's our world and our systems and how it was built and how it is transitioning in the future. 

Really a fascinating look at history through the lense of the diseases that shaped us. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical content, and Death

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Racism, and Genocide

aileron's review

informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Genocide, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Colonisation, and Death

Moderate: Classism, Antisemitism, and Chronic illness

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Alcoholism, Drug use, Excrement, Rape, Police brutality, and Vomit

haljonesy's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

4.25

 Pathogenesis truly is a history of the world. It encompasses ancient history, with Greeks and Romans, and advances up to the present-day. Kennedy examines the effects of epidemics on human society and demonstrates how certain events in history were, at least in part, caused by a viral disease.

One of the most interesting parts of Kennedy's analysis was the way he connected the resistance that some societies had to certain diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever, and how those resistances led to institutions such as slavery. I have generally been taught that one of the main reasons that Africans were enslaved by Europeans and Americans was because of scientific racism, but Kennedy suggests that scientific racism arose as a way to justify enslavement that was already ongoing, and that Africans were preferred as slaves because of their resistance to such diseases as malaria that wreaked havoc in southern states, which indentured Europeans had no immunity against.

Kennedy also drew clear connections between viruses and poverty, demonstrating ways in which people in power (i.e., people with money) took advantage of those who had no easy way out of their destitution, which in turn bred diseases due to poor sanitation and health conditions. Cholera was extremely well covered in relation to people living in poverty, especially in England. Particularly poignant was Kennedy's examination of post-colonial African nations, and how long-lasting the effects of colonialism are.

The main focus of this book is on the United Kingdom and United States, as well as the peoples they colonized. Ancient Greece and Rome are fairly well analyzed, as well as parts of Africa, and China. I listened to the audio version of this book, and did enjoy the narrator, though I somewhat wish I'd read the print book so that I could make notes about certain points that interested me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Religious bigotry, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Racism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, and Slavery

Moderate: Xenophobia, Terminal illness, Mental illness, War, Excrement, Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Blood

Minor: Drug use, Violence, Vomit, Chronic illness, Hate crime, Suicide, Cancer, Child death, Genocide, and Gore

onlyonebookshelf's review

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Colonisation, Medical content, Child death, and Slavery