Spores, Plagues and History: The Story of Anthrax - Softcover

Chris Holmes

3.7

20 ratings by Goodreads

9781930754454: Spores, Plagues and History: The Story of Anthrax

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1930754450 ISBN 13: 9781930754454

Publisher: Durban House Pub Co Inc, 2003

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Spores, Plagues and History follows the trail of anthrax from prebibical times to the present. A highly readable, authoritative perspective of the role infectious agents have played in world history.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Chris Holmes, M.D., is a medical epidemiologist whose career spans pediatric practice, academic preventive medicine, and U.S. Navy Medical Service. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of California, Riverside; an M.D. from the University of Cincinnati; and an M.Sc. in Public Health from the University of Utah. He has authored fifteen professional articles in peer-reviewed journals on topics as diverse as pediatrics, occupational medicine, biomedical ethics, and the history of medicine. He was a consultant for the 19th Edition of Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, and has served as a reviewer for several professional journals. Chris' other published books are: The Medusa Strain (Durban House, 2002), a Foreword Magazine finalist for best mystery of 2002 and a gripping novel of bioterrorism; The Garden of Evil (Durban House, 2005), a novel highlighting the threat of food-borne terrorism; and Blood on the Tartan, an historical romance set in the Highlands of 19th century Scotland. A fifth book, The Mosquito Tapes, a forensic thriller is in press. Chris lives in Escondido, California with his wife and two dogs. He is an avid gardener and enjoys playing contract bridge, long-distance running, and spoiling his four granddaughters.

Review:

As the author points out in the preface of this entertaining text, histories are usually about big things, about wars and momentous events. But this book is about a microbe: anthrax. Dr. Holmes has presented to us an educational and entertaining account of the earliest knowldege of this microbe and how it came to be used as a weapon. With this book, Dr. Holmes traces the known history of anthrax from Moses to Saddam Husseim. He shows us how it has caused problems for millenia and tracks its beginnings as a weapon. He caps the past with frightening accounts of the very recent uses of anthrax, even leaving us with several unknowns about where we will go next. . . In an effective, unique style, Dr. Holmes blends rigourous historical facts with speculative fiction -- but he always makes it plain when he diverges to a fictional account. . .Dr. Holmes uses this technique effectively more than once in this book -- including accounts of recent trials into weaponization of anthrax. Two very memorable chapters from Spores are the chapters about the lives and work of Drs. Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, including a brief discussion of the animosity that existed between the two. Reading about how these two giants advanced the fields of bacteriology, epidemiology, and medicine in general is both enlightening and entertaining. The final sections of the book discuss at length the last few generations of anthrax science, including discussions of the infamous Japanese experiments in Manchuria during WW II, and the later obtaining of those secrets by America, Russia, and China. The discussions on what followed, with experimentation and the secrecy surrounding this in each of these countries, is frankly terrifying. Overall, Spores, Plagues and History is a highly entertaining and educational read, and one that every person connected with terrorism and medicine can benefit from reading. --Journal of Emergency Medicine, V.30, Issue 1, January, 2006, p. 127

Spores, Plagues and History contains a mix of topics: the medical identification and treatment of anthrax, the history of the recent anthrax bioterror attack in the United States, the history of presumed anthrax use as a weapon of terror, and the influence of anthrax through history. These subjects are coupled with a discussion of past biowarfare programs, primarily of Japan, the United states, and Russia. The book is an enjoyable and overall informative read. . . Dr. Holmes does a service by bringing this book out at this time. His many examples of the use of terror, from the ninth century BC to th present, help to focus a clear description of the intended hazard to life of such biologic weapons. --Bull. Hist. Med., 2005, 79:382-3.

Medical epidemiologist Chris Holmes, M.D. presents Spores, Plagues and History: The Story of Anthrax, a straightforward accounting of this devastating disease and its effects on humanity throughout history. From 'woolsorter's disease' during the Industrial Revolution, to modern-day biological weapons, and so much more, Holmes' extensively researched sources aptly trace a path in clear, no-nonsense terms that students of both World History and Medical History will greatly appreciate. A work of impecable scholarship, Spores Plagues And History is very strongly recommended for academic library reference collections. --Midwest Book Review, January 17, 2004.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.