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    Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History
    Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History
    Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History
    Audiobook7 hours

    Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History

    Written by Dorothy H. Crawford

    Narrated by Jennifer M. Dixon

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 twenty-first 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 30, 2018
    ISBN9781541489639
    Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History

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    Reviews for Deadly Companions

    4/5

    43 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Do to its age the information on the more recent epidemics is dated. Besides that the book was fairly interesting, though I found the narrator's monotonous voice a little painful.
    • 4/5
      I give the book 5 stars and the narrator four stars. She was a bit monotone which made the book seem dry sometimes.
    • 5/5
      This was an audio book I listened to after influenza. This book was very informative and nicely read. I should have become an epidemiologist or pathologist.
    • 4/5
      A excellent layman's guide to infectious diseases, striking a good balance between scientific rigor and entertaining prose. The endnotes provide a wealth of further reading for the curious without interfering with the text. I'm a bit of an epidemiology nerd, but I think this would be fascinating even for people who haven't dreamed of working for the CDC. A glossary and well-done index are valuable additions to this OUP book.