Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The Great Shadow:
This book does not cover the man-cold, unfortunately.
Quick synopsis:
A look at illness throughout history.
Fact for Non-History People:
Smallpox is the only disease eradicated by man.
Fact for History Nerds:
Technically, rinderpest has also been eradicated, but that’s for livestock.
My Take on The Great Shadow:
I love when a book is exactly what I am hoping it will be from the title and the cover. This is the case with The Great Shadow by Susan Wise Bauer. The basic premise is quite simple. How does sickness shape our world? The answer is so wide-ranging it could take thousands of books to go into detail. Bauer takes a much less laborious tack.
Bauer sprinkles the narrative with cuts to a specific time and place while discussing what a person would be thinking about an oncoming illness. Sure, you have a cold coming on, and you think the next few days will suck. Hundreds of years ago, you fell asleep with the idea that you may never wake up.
Bauer never takes the long way when she can break a complex concept down into a much easier-to-understand example. Vaccines are pretty political nowadays, but guess what? They were during the American Revolution when George Washington went rogue and had his army inoculated against smallpox. Yes, we cringe when we think about all the people who were bled unnecessarily (and probably to their deaths), but we can’t forget that we still use some old remedies today.
I will say that Bauer’s book is mostly focused on European and American medicine. It’s not that she is discounting any other area, but merely that she can make the points she wants to make without having to cover the whole world. I would call this book targeted but not exhaustive.
You can judge this book by its cover. I recommend you pick it up when you do.
(This book was provided as a review copy by St. Martin’s Press.)
Verdict:
A great overview of illness. Buy it here!
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