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A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19
In the vein of Medical Apartheid , The Color of Law , and Just Medicine , a prodigious history of global disease that reveals the devastating link between public health and systemic inequality.
AIDS, cholera, the Spanish flu—epidemics become catastrophic not only by chance, but by human design. With clear-eyed research and accessible prose, A History of the World in Six Plagues shows that throughout history, outbreaks of disease have been exacerbated by the racial, economic, and sociopolitical divides we allow to bloom in times of good health. These self-defeating practices have time and again undermined public health efforts, and ultimately furthered damage to the already marginalized and vulnerable communities they target.
Princeton-trained historian Edna Bonhomme’s examination of humankind’s disastrous treatment of pandemic disease takes us across place and time from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania, and from plantation-era America to our modern COVID-19-scarred world to unravel the shocking truths about the history of race, class, and gender-based discrimination in the face of disease. From Haitians targeted and ostracized as the alleged source of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, to the creation of concentration camps and depraved medical experimentations in the face of sleeping sickness in western Africa, and to marginalized communities overlooked and scapegoated while the wealthy sheltered from COVID-19 in relative safety, Bonhomme effortlessly shows us the oppressive practices that shape our history and our present. Much more than a remarkable history, A History of the World in Six Plagues is also a rising call to action for change.
AIDS, cholera, the Spanish flu—epidemics become catastrophic not only by chance, but by human design. With clear-eyed research and accessible prose, A History of the World in Six Plagues shows that throughout history, outbreaks of disease have been exacerbated by the racial, economic, and sociopolitical divides we allow to bloom in times of good health. These self-defeating practices have time and again undermined public health efforts, and ultimately furthered damage to the already marginalized and vulnerable communities they target.
Princeton-trained historian Edna Bonhomme’s examination of humankind’s disastrous treatment of pandemic disease takes us across place and time from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania, and from plantation-era America to our modern COVID-19-scarred world to unravel the shocking truths about the history of race, class, and gender-based discrimination in the face of disease. From Haitians targeted and ostracized as the alleged source of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, to the creation of concentration camps and depraved medical experimentations in the face of sleeping sickness in western Africa, and to marginalized communities overlooked and scapegoated while the wealthy sheltered from COVID-19 in relative safety, Bonhomme effortlessly shows us the oppressive practices that shape our history and our present. Much more than a remarkable history, A History of the World in Six Plagues is also a rising call to action for change.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published March 11, 2025
About the author
Edna Bonhomme
11 books14 followersEdna Bonhomme is a Haitian American scholar, writer, and former biologist. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science where she is working on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to her book project, she is collaborating with Berlin –based artists and writers who are using decolonial methodologies and diachronic practices in order to upend uneven power dynamics in archives, pedagogy, and science.
She completed her PhD in history/history of Science at Princeton University in 2017. Using a historical materialist approach, her dissertation, “Plagued Bodies and Spaces: Medicine, Trade, and Death in Ottoman Egypt, 1705-1830 CE,” examined the commercial and geopolitical trajectory of plague and as its direct links to commercial, provincial, and imperial policies in several North African port cities. In addition to her historical training, she studied biology at Reed College (BA) and public health practitioner at Columbia University (MPH).
In addition to her academic interests, she writes for publications including but not limited to Africa is a Country, Contretemps, Der Freitag, Jacobin Magazine, Mada Masr, and Viewpoint Magazine. She has previously taught for the Princeton Prison Initiative (2012), Drexel University (2016, 2017), and Humboldt University (2018).
More information about her can be found at https://www.ednabonhomme.com.
She completed her PhD in history/history of Science at Princeton University in 2017. Using a historical materialist approach, her dissertation, “Plagued Bodies and Spaces: Medicine, Trade, and Death in Ottoman Egypt, 1705-1830 CE,” examined the commercial and geopolitical trajectory of plague and as its direct links to commercial, provincial, and imperial policies in several North African port cities. In addition to her historical training, she studied biology at Reed College (BA) and public health practitioner at Columbia University (MPH).
In addition to her academic interests, she writes for publications including but not limited to Africa is a Country, Contretemps, Der Freitag, Jacobin Magazine, Mada Masr, and Viewpoint Magazine. She has previously taught for the Princeton Prison Initiative (2012), Drexel University (2016, 2017), and Humboldt University (2018).
More information about her can be found at https://www.ednabonhomme.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
November 8, 2025
The subtitle of this book is descriptive of the contents, but titling this book “History of the World …” is a bit of hyperbole. I suppose it can be defended on the basis that the sociological reactions to the six sited plagues are probably typical examples of the way humans have reacted to disease outbreaks throughout all of history.
The author examines the history of the sociological responses to the six plagues: cholera, sleeping sickness, influenza, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19. This book focuses on class and racial inequalities as well as the injustices of confinement.
The 19th century saw at least five major cholera pandemics. Broad Street cholera outbreak in London (1854) is a famous example of the importance of sanitation and clean water for controlling the spread of cholera. The toll of cholera suffered by the slaves in the American South was particularly hard, and some authorities placed blame on the supposed innate weaknesses of the slaves while overlooking their poor living conditions.
On the subject of sleeping sickness this book examines the work of Robert Koch in East Africa and in particular how he experimented on native Africans in large numbers as if they were Guinea pigs (i.e. laboratory animals). Robert Koch is credited with numerous advances in medical science, and in the case of his investigation of sleeping sickness he was operating with a mentality typical of the colonial era.
When examining flu pandemics the book starts with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and quickly branches off to the writings of Virginia Woolf and other authors of the time in which they describe their experiences with sickness.
With Ebola the book describes how the disease was used to stigmatized Sub-Saharan Africa. With HIV/AIDS the book features the experiences of prisoners and tells of several prisoners who were activists on the issue.
In the discussion of Covid-19 the book branches into a number of directions including the stories of a couple women that the author interviewed in Europe. The author also turned this part of the book's narrative into a mini-memoir and told of her own experiences getting married in Europe during the later days of the pandemic.
It's worth noting that the author, Edna Bonhomme, is a Haitian American currently living in Berlin, Germany working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science. She is working there on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The author examines the history of the sociological responses to the six plagues: cholera, sleeping sickness, influenza, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19. This book focuses on class and racial inequalities as well as the injustices of confinement.
The 19th century saw at least five major cholera pandemics. Broad Street cholera outbreak in London (1854) is a famous example of the importance of sanitation and clean water for controlling the spread of cholera. The toll of cholera suffered by the slaves in the American South was particularly hard, and some authorities placed blame on the supposed innate weaknesses of the slaves while overlooking their poor living conditions.
On the subject of sleeping sickness this book examines the work of Robert Koch in East Africa and in particular how he experimented on native Africans in large numbers as if they were Guinea pigs (i.e. laboratory animals). Robert Koch is credited with numerous advances in medical science, and in the case of his investigation of sleeping sickness he was operating with a mentality typical of the colonial era.
When examining flu pandemics the book starts with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and quickly branches off to the writings of Virginia Woolf and other authors of the time in which they describe their experiences with sickness.
With Ebola the book describes how the disease was used to stigmatized Sub-Saharan Africa. With HIV/AIDS the book features the experiences of prisoners and tells of several prisoners who were activists on the issue.
In the discussion of Covid-19 the book branches into a number of directions including the stories of a couple women that the author interviewed in Europe. The author also turned this part of the book's narrative into a mini-memoir and told of her own experiences getting married in Europe during the later days of the pandemic.
It's worth noting that the author, Edna Bonhomme, is a Haitian American currently living in Berlin, Germany working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science. She is working there on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
March 17, 2026
"I RARELY ENJOY AN ENTIRE NIGHT of rest without interruption."
I should've read the reviews and checked the rating on this one. The science nerd in me is fascinated with plagues, and this was about multiple, so I just jumped right in. Well, that was a mistake. It was not at all what I was expecting and it took me almost a year to read it. The fact that it starts with the word "I" should've told me that this wasn't going to be filled with scientific fact about the diseases themselves. This was more of a collection of essays focusing on the state of society at the time of the infection, and how it disproportionately affected the poor, African Americans, and other POCs. I would've preferred a more comprehensive list (there's no Black Death for instance, no yellow fever, no smallpox) over a much longer period of time. Epidemics didn't start with cholera, so if you are going to do a history of the world, you might want to go a little farther back than the 19th century.
Honestly, I had so many issues with this that I don't really know where to start. The title was misleading, as this was a collection of essays more so than a history; some not even pertaining to the diseases themselves, but rather one or more people's experience during that time. The lack of editing and flow was an issue. Did it even have an editor? The form should've been slightly different, with longer essays that stayed on topic, as opposed to shorter essays that jumped around. There was also a lot of repetition. For instance, the author would unnecessarily paraphrase quotes from others, or have multiple paragraphs that ultimately said the same thing. Last but not least, and in a class all of its own, the audiobook was god-awful. The narrator had a weird cadence and utilized awkwardly long pauses in the most random of places. I had to speed it up to 1.5x to make the speech patterns sound more normal to my ears. That didn't fix it, but it made it somewhat bearable. And the list goes on.
I feel bad about it, because I know the author cares and put a lot of work into this, but I just can't rate it above 2 stars. The book I could maybe rate 2.5, but the audiobook was a solid 1; at most a 1.5, if I was feeling generous. There were plenty of mispronunciations as well, especially of the German words. Considering the author lives in Berlin, you'd think the narrator would be coached on how to say them. Overall a lot of little (and big) disappointments that lead me to wishing I had done more research before getting this from my library.
"Some of us survived, but over the years, I have learned that survival is not enough."
I should've read the reviews and checked the rating on this one. The science nerd in me is fascinated with plagues, and this was about multiple, so I just jumped right in. Well, that was a mistake. It was not at all what I was expecting and it took me almost a year to read it. The fact that it starts with the word "I" should've told me that this wasn't going to be filled with scientific fact about the diseases themselves. This was more of a collection of essays focusing on the state of society at the time of the infection, and how it disproportionately affected the poor, African Americans, and other POCs. I would've preferred a more comprehensive list (there's no Black Death for instance, no yellow fever, no smallpox) over a much longer period of time. Epidemics didn't start with cholera, so if you are going to do a history of the world, you might want to go a little farther back than the 19th century.
Honestly, I had so many issues with this that I don't really know where to start. The title was misleading, as this was a collection of essays more so than a history; some not even pertaining to the diseases themselves, but rather one or more people's experience during that time. The lack of editing and flow was an issue. Did it even have an editor? The form should've been slightly different, with longer essays that stayed on topic, as opposed to shorter essays that jumped around. There was also a lot of repetition. For instance, the author would unnecessarily paraphrase quotes from others, or have multiple paragraphs that ultimately said the same thing. Last but not least, and in a class all of its own, the audiobook was god-awful. The narrator had a weird cadence and utilized awkwardly long pauses in the most random of places. I had to speed it up to 1.5x to make the speech patterns sound more normal to my ears. That didn't fix it, but it made it somewhat bearable. And the list goes on.
I feel bad about it, because I know the author cares and put a lot of work into this, but I just can't rate it above 2 stars. The book I could maybe rate 2.5, but the audiobook was a solid 1; at most a 1.5, if I was feeling generous. There were plenty of mispronunciations as well, especially of the German words. Considering the author lives in Berlin, you'd think the narrator would be coached on how to say them. Overall a lot of little (and big) disappointments that lead me to wishing I had done more research before getting this from my library.
"Some of us survived, but over the years, I have learned that survival is not enough."
November 5, 2024
This book didn’t really tell a history of plagues, rather essays about how plagues have affected specific populations were affected by each plague - what were the leaders of countries affected doing, what preventions and cures were found, and she finalizes with her own recommendations. I feel like this book was very political and was super opinionated rather than based on facts.
Thank you for a free advanced copy in exchange for a review, Altria Books & NetGalley
Thank you for a free advanced copy in exchange for a review, Altria Books & NetGalley
Did Not Finish
July 15, 2025DNF @ 11% on 7/14/25
I’ve wanted to read this for a long time and I’m sad to say that I was disappointed. It’s clear to me that the author is brilliant. Full stop. This is very well researched and I understand the story the author is trying to paint. That said, I felt that the way the story was told was a little disorganized and nonlinear in a way that I could not enjoy. It read as a disjointed collection of essays and facts rather than a cohesive narrative and I struggled to get into it. The history here, particularly the social history of infectious disease and their political nature, is SO important, but the writing/storytelling didn’t work for me. That said, I think this is an important text and the casual racism/classism in the reviews may drive me to try again out of spite at a later date—not writing this one off completely yet.
I’ve wanted to read this for a long time and I’m sad to say that I was disappointed. It’s clear to me that the author is brilliant. Full stop. This is very well researched and I understand the story the author is trying to paint. That said, I felt that the way the story was told was a little disorganized and nonlinear in a way that I could not enjoy. It read as a disjointed collection of essays and facts rather than a cohesive narrative and I struggled to get into it. The history here, particularly the social history of infectious disease and their political nature, is SO important, but the writing/storytelling didn’t work for me. That said, I think this is an important text and the casual racism/classism in the reviews may drive me to try again out of spite at a later date—not writing this one off completely yet.
Did Not Finish
May 25, 2025DNF at around the halfway point. I was hopeful it would improve. The title is very misleading. This is a dogmatic look at the affects of disease on determined minority groups.
May 30, 2025
The title of this book caught my eye on the new non-fiction display at one of my local libraries. However, the title is absolutely not what this book is about. This is not a history of the world in six plagues or otherwise.
The author begins with cholera, which is how one realizes this isn’t going to be about the history of the world in plagues, considering it begins with the way in which cholera affected enslaved people on plantations of the American South. It is worth noting that the author defines the argument of her book right in the prologue: “The main argument of this book is that pandemics start small, grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don’t bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives. I find that humans seek easy answers in crisis, but in so doing lay the groundwork for far more profound problems later.” (The emphasis is the author’s.) She makes a very valid point; people of color and those in lower socioeconomic groups suffer far great consequences during epidemics and pandemics than those who are white and wealthy.
Even though Bonhomme’s point is extremely valid, and one that we all should reckon with across the world, this work has some serious problems. There are quite a few sentence fragments that interrupt the flow of the writing. For example, on page 178, Bonhomme writes: “Of the West African countries, Liberia had the most reported deaths, with nearly 5,000 deceased. Though some aid workers estimate that the numbers are higher.” Perhaps it’s merely an editing issue, and Bonhomme intended to use a comma instead of a period. But it happened quite a few times.
There were also many times that I felt that Bonhomme was stretching the meaning of a word. I don’t mind that when I’m reading a novel, but in a work of non-fiction, I would prefer words to retain their dictionary meaning. On page 231, Bonhomme writes: “Reflecting in ‘AIDS and Its Metaphors’, Susan Sontag intoned:…” According to Merriam-Webster, “intoned” means “say or recite with little rise and fall of the pitch of the voice,” and considering that Bonhomme is referring to something Sontag wrote, “intoned” is probably not the best choice of words. Again, this is merely one example; there are may like this.
Bonhomme also references so many people’s words and thoughts. Often, she interrupts her point to bolster support from another scholar or writer by saying, “Historian so-and-so writes that…” or “Scholar this-and-that mentions that…” My high school English teacher would be horrified if I had turned in a paper with such basic introductions of quotes. And to be fair, Bonhomme uses so many quotes from other people that it can be hard to parse her own thoughts and points. Occasionally the quote she uses seems to contradict the point she is trying to make. It becomes muddled and confusing to the reader.
I agree with Bonhomme that the world needs to reckon with the fact that marginalized groups suffer far greater consequences when plagues scour the earth. Alas, this book was in dire need of a strict editor.
The author begins with cholera, which is how one realizes this isn’t going to be about the history of the world in plagues, considering it begins with the way in which cholera affected enslaved people on plantations of the American South. It is worth noting that the author defines the argument of her book right in the prologue: “The main argument of this book is that pandemics start small, grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don’t bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives. I find that humans seek easy answers in crisis, but in so doing lay the groundwork for far more profound problems later.” (The emphasis is the author’s.) She makes a very valid point; people of color and those in lower socioeconomic groups suffer far great consequences during epidemics and pandemics than those who are white and wealthy.
Even though Bonhomme’s point is extremely valid, and one that we all should reckon with across the world, this work has some serious problems. There are quite a few sentence fragments that interrupt the flow of the writing. For example, on page 178, Bonhomme writes: “Of the West African countries, Liberia had the most reported deaths, with nearly 5,000 deceased. Though some aid workers estimate that the numbers are higher.” Perhaps it’s merely an editing issue, and Bonhomme intended to use a comma instead of a period. But it happened quite a few times.
There were also many times that I felt that Bonhomme was stretching the meaning of a word. I don’t mind that when I’m reading a novel, but in a work of non-fiction, I would prefer words to retain their dictionary meaning. On page 231, Bonhomme writes: “Reflecting in ‘AIDS and Its Metaphors’, Susan Sontag intoned:…” According to Merriam-Webster, “intoned” means “say or recite with little rise and fall of the pitch of the voice,” and considering that Bonhomme is referring to something Sontag wrote, “intoned” is probably not the best choice of words. Again, this is merely one example; there are may like this.
Bonhomme also references so many people’s words and thoughts. Often, she interrupts her point to bolster support from another scholar or writer by saying, “Historian so-and-so writes that…” or “Scholar this-and-that mentions that…” My high school English teacher would be horrified if I had turned in a paper with such basic introductions of quotes. And to be fair, Bonhomme uses so many quotes from other people that it can be hard to parse her own thoughts and points. Occasionally the quote she uses seems to contradict the point she is trying to make. It becomes muddled and confusing to the reader.
I agree with Bonhomme that the world needs to reckon with the fact that marginalized groups suffer far greater consequences when plagues scour the earth. Alas, this book was in dire need of a strict editor.
August 11, 2025
I was so excited to find this book. And given the casual racism in so many of the reviews, I was determined to like it, and did find many of the earlier essays interesting, informative and edifying.
But, with that said, I get the sense that the author somehow does not understand that we are still, actively, in a pandemic (because if she did, wouldn't she have said so, in no uncertain terms, even just ONE TIME?! Wouldn't this have been the *perfect* book to discuss this reality plainly and openly?? I therefore have to assume the omission of such a conversation is an endorsement of denialistic logic) and there are *millions* of chronically ill and disabled people who have been eliminated from society, do not have freedom of movement, and are effectively being held captive (albeit under vastly different circumstances than the forms of captivity discussed in the book, such as concentration camps or enslavement) for the sake of 'back to normal.' Given the extent to which the author focuses on and reiterates the centrality of all three of these experiences to her thesis - but does not even a single time connect them to the present day, or the covid pandemic she devotes an entire chapter to - I have to assume she either did not see a need to ground her research in disability justice...or just doesn't care. I don't get the sense she really considered chronically ill, immunocompromised and otherwise covid-conscious disabled people, as a comminity, at all. Either way, it is a galling, unfathomable omission for a book like this to make - a book, fundamentally, on the violence of historical erasure, enacting erasure.
I subsequently found this book deeply spiritually and psychologically painful to finish as a result. Disappointed isn't even the word. It was soul-crushing for me, a chronically ill and disabled person who has lost tremendous access to society since the onset of 'back to normal' under Biden in 2021, to realize, as the book wound down, the author was never going to engage with the pandemic of today thoughtfully or realistically. Superficial is, alas, the only word for her foray into the coronavirus pandemic.
Her concluding message of "just live life" vis a vis covid is not only offensive to chronically ill/immunocompromised people barred from society against our will, but outright reproduces and perpetuates far-right rhetoric (this is literally a far-right script that has been absorbed into the mainstream & normalized thanks to Joe Biden and establishment Democrats funded by corporations and billionaires with a vested interest in fascism & eugenics for economical and political purposes), whose rise she calls out in the post-script without, again, bothering to acknowledge its relevance to present-day narratives of denialism and eugenics. She profiles one chronically ill person in the covid essay, which initially had me optimistic, but concludes that essay with nonsense about this person eventually capitulating to just 'living her life' after she - a cancer survivor just coming out of chemotherapy (eg severely immunocompromised) - was told by her doctor that getting vaccinated would reduce her likelihood of contracting covid. The author does not understand this cancer survivor was not only gravely misinformed by her doctor, but put in harm's way; and thus does nothing to address this tension whatsoever. Moreover, she does not caveat for how the vaccines have failed to keep up with the rapid mutations of covid...due to denialism and the complete removal of precautions from society in the name of 'back to normal', otherwise known as 'living [your] life' (where the 'your' can never apply to high-risk groups who are informed of the risks, impervious to propaganda, and desperate to survive in the absence of adequate support and/or access to care; we've been left to "fall to the wayside" as a matter of policy). A complete and utter mess.
Rather, Bonhomme, who has spent much of the book rightfully explaining the historical violence of medical doctors and the medical industrial complex broadly (as a legacy of colonialism, and particularly against Black people), and arguing in defense of medical distrust as historically-relevant & thus valid, nevertheless takes this Dr.'s word as fact, even though there is by now a bounty of published scientific and medical research that demonstrates covid vaccines *do not* prevent transmission, only aid in the reduction of severity upon contraction - in immunocompetent people. I am not antivax (!!!). I am anti-misinformation, and the belief that vaccination is all one needs to never again worry about covid is *precisely* the reason chronically ill and IC people have not been able to access society in 5-6 years. Why did the author's research not extend deep enough to confront this? The information is not hard to find, and disabled people of various experiences and backgrounds have been toiling for going on six years to educate the public about this. I have lived this - this is my lived experience and the lived experience of SO many other disabled people I encounter online. Would it have killed Bomhomme to pay attention to us? To heed our experiences for a book written about how the experiences of the most disproportionately impacted members of society in a plague are so routinely minimized and/or erased? The irony is too painful to bear. The inclusion of only a single quote from Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha (as an acknowledgment of the need for a disabled perspective) betrays the halfheartedness, at best, of her effort to weave disability justice into a book that so clearly beckons the utter centrality of such a lens.
In failing to acknowledge, in any way, the interminable nature of the covid pandemic, the very fact of this reality as an act of socio- and geopolitical violence against the disenfranchised (as Bonhomme repeatedly refers to the most marginalized), as well as the way her themes of captivity, un-freedom of movement and elimination from society are never connected with or exemplified vis a vis covid, ironically renders this book on plagues complicit in present-day pandemic denialism.
I am not trying to trash someone's hard work, especially when it covers other important histories that have been buried or minimized by a dominant narrative shaped in the image and likeness of power. That was precisely the reason I was so excited to have found this book in the first place - I appreciate the urgency of such a campaign of historical memory, because I am living, in real time, the devastation, pain, struggle and consequences of a history being warped and revised for the purpose of eliminating inconvenient realities entirely from that narrative. I also know my criticisms are complicated as a white reader critiquing a Black femme writer covering a book largely moored in Black histories. That is not lost on me, and I've done my best to be careful to shape my criticism around this complicated dynamic. I don't want to diminish or ignore that tension. But this pandemic is, for all the Black disabled/chronically ill/immunocompromised people who've been among those of us toiling to educate deniers about how pandemic denialism has eliminated us from society and directly expedited the rise of fascism and eugenics, also Black history. I just don't see how these interconnected histories ever stand a chance of being truly reclaimed, learned from, and returned to everyone they belong to if we can't even rely on each other to stand in solidarity and be honest about how past erased histories remain ensconced in our present and continue to limit our collective capacity for awareness.
But, with that said, I get the sense that the author somehow does not understand that we are still, actively, in a pandemic (because if she did, wouldn't she have said so, in no uncertain terms, even just ONE TIME?! Wouldn't this have been the *perfect* book to discuss this reality plainly and openly?? I therefore have to assume the omission of such a conversation is an endorsement of denialistic logic) and there are *millions* of chronically ill and disabled people who have been eliminated from society, do not have freedom of movement, and are effectively being held captive (albeit under vastly different circumstances than the forms of captivity discussed in the book, such as concentration camps or enslavement) for the sake of 'back to normal.' Given the extent to which the author focuses on and reiterates the centrality of all three of these experiences to her thesis - but does not even a single time connect them to the present day, or the covid pandemic she devotes an entire chapter to - I have to assume she either did not see a need to ground her research in disability justice...or just doesn't care. I don't get the sense she really considered chronically ill, immunocompromised and otherwise covid-conscious disabled people, as a comminity, at all. Either way, it is a galling, unfathomable omission for a book like this to make - a book, fundamentally, on the violence of historical erasure, enacting erasure.
I subsequently found this book deeply spiritually and psychologically painful to finish as a result. Disappointed isn't even the word. It was soul-crushing for me, a chronically ill and disabled person who has lost tremendous access to society since the onset of 'back to normal' under Biden in 2021, to realize, as the book wound down, the author was never going to engage with the pandemic of today thoughtfully or realistically. Superficial is, alas, the only word for her foray into the coronavirus pandemic.
Her concluding message of "just live life" vis a vis covid is not only offensive to chronically ill/immunocompromised people barred from society against our will, but outright reproduces and perpetuates far-right rhetoric (this is literally a far-right script that has been absorbed into the mainstream & normalized thanks to Joe Biden and establishment Democrats funded by corporations and billionaires with a vested interest in fascism & eugenics for economical and political purposes), whose rise she calls out in the post-script without, again, bothering to acknowledge its relevance to present-day narratives of denialism and eugenics. She profiles one chronically ill person in the covid essay, which initially had me optimistic, but concludes that essay with nonsense about this person eventually capitulating to just 'living her life' after she - a cancer survivor just coming out of chemotherapy (eg severely immunocompromised) - was told by her doctor that getting vaccinated would reduce her likelihood of contracting covid. The author does not understand this cancer survivor was not only gravely misinformed by her doctor, but put in harm's way; and thus does nothing to address this tension whatsoever. Moreover, she does not caveat for how the vaccines have failed to keep up with the rapid mutations of covid...due to denialism and the complete removal of precautions from society in the name of 'back to normal', otherwise known as 'living [your] life' (where the 'your' can never apply to high-risk groups who are informed of the risks, impervious to propaganda, and desperate to survive in the absence of adequate support and/or access to care; we've been left to "fall to the wayside" as a matter of policy). A complete and utter mess.
Rather, Bonhomme, who has spent much of the book rightfully explaining the historical violence of medical doctors and the medical industrial complex broadly (as a legacy of colonialism, and particularly against Black people), and arguing in defense of medical distrust as historically-relevant & thus valid, nevertheless takes this Dr.'s word as fact, even though there is by now a bounty of published scientific and medical research that demonstrates covid vaccines *do not* prevent transmission, only aid in the reduction of severity upon contraction - in immunocompetent people. I am not antivax (!!!). I am anti-misinformation, and the belief that vaccination is all one needs to never again worry about covid is *precisely* the reason chronically ill and IC people have not been able to access society in 5-6 years. Why did the author's research not extend deep enough to confront this? The information is not hard to find, and disabled people of various experiences and backgrounds have been toiling for going on six years to educate the public about this. I have lived this - this is my lived experience and the lived experience of SO many other disabled people I encounter online. Would it have killed Bomhomme to pay attention to us? To heed our experiences for a book written about how the experiences of the most disproportionately impacted members of society in a plague are so routinely minimized and/or erased? The irony is too painful to bear. The inclusion of only a single quote from Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha (as an acknowledgment of the need for a disabled perspective) betrays the halfheartedness, at best, of her effort to weave disability justice into a book that so clearly beckons the utter centrality of such a lens.
In failing to acknowledge, in any way, the interminable nature of the covid pandemic, the very fact of this reality as an act of socio- and geopolitical violence against the disenfranchised (as Bonhomme repeatedly refers to the most marginalized), as well as the way her themes of captivity, un-freedom of movement and elimination from society are never connected with or exemplified vis a vis covid, ironically renders this book on plagues complicit in present-day pandemic denialism.
I am not trying to trash someone's hard work, especially when it covers other important histories that have been buried or minimized by a dominant narrative shaped in the image and likeness of power. That was precisely the reason I was so excited to have found this book in the first place - I appreciate the urgency of such a campaign of historical memory, because I am living, in real time, the devastation, pain, struggle and consequences of a history being warped and revised for the purpose of eliminating inconvenient realities entirely from that narrative. I also know my criticisms are complicated as a white reader critiquing a Black femme writer covering a book largely moored in Black histories. That is not lost on me, and I've done my best to be careful to shape my criticism around this complicated dynamic. I don't want to diminish or ignore that tension. But this pandemic is, for all the Black disabled/chronically ill/immunocompromised people who've been among those of us toiling to educate deniers about how pandemic denialism has eliminated us from society and directly expedited the rise of fascism and eugenics, also Black history. I just don't see how these interconnected histories ever stand a chance of being truly reclaimed, learned from, and returned to everyone they belong to if we can't even rely on each other to stand in solidarity and be honest about how past erased histories remain ensconced in our present and continue to limit our collective capacity for awareness.
December 2, 2024
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
This was not the book I expected to read. I expected more information of how each of those 6 plagues effected their victims, what sorts of care they got, and what percentage died, along with any public health (as it existed in the time and place) measures were attempted. Instead, I got a lot of sociology and discussions of racism and sexism. I do not dispute that racism, sexism, and nationalism play a key part in stemming disease, along with wealth disparity and non-white over-representation in prisons – a petri dish for any contagious disease. I expected the book to focus on the diseases and good and bad attempts at determining their cause and cures.
There were many infamous plagues throughout history that were left out, including the Justinian Plague in the 6th century.
There is a great deal about the medicalization of blackness, or non-whiteness. There is evidence of sexism within medicine, as evidenced by who drugs are tested on, the vast differences in how men and women are treated at hospitals when having heart attacks. The sociology is important, but I was looking to read of the science of the diseases.
I thought a better job could have been done with the racial protests over such things as the George Floyd murder protests during Covid-19. That was one thing that some white racists used to show that it’s not a real “thing”, as no Covid outbreaks were reported from these political actions. Perhaps more could have been said about that?
Still, it’s very showing how history rhymes with itself, in how some ebola deniers existed just as how there are Covid deniers now. They’re in a different place, in a different time, but it’s something “they” came up with, and resistance to vaccines. It’s notable that distrust of public health goes along with nationalism.
I would recommend this to people interested in history or sociology. There's some, but not a lot, about the history of the diseases themselves - and several plagues are lacking - including some that were designed for racism such as giving smallpox-laden blankets to Native Americans.
This was not the book I expected to read. I expected more information of how each of those 6 plagues effected their victims, what sorts of care they got, and what percentage died, along with any public health (as it existed in the time and place) measures were attempted. Instead, I got a lot of sociology and discussions of racism and sexism. I do not dispute that racism, sexism, and nationalism play a key part in stemming disease, along with wealth disparity and non-white over-representation in prisons – a petri dish for any contagious disease. I expected the book to focus on the diseases and good and bad attempts at determining their cause and cures.
There were many infamous plagues throughout history that were left out, including the Justinian Plague in the 6th century.
There is a great deal about the medicalization of blackness, or non-whiteness. There is evidence of sexism within medicine, as evidenced by who drugs are tested on, the vast differences in how men and women are treated at hospitals when having heart attacks. The sociology is important, but I was looking to read of the science of the diseases.
I thought a better job could have been done with the racial protests over such things as the George Floyd murder protests during Covid-19. That was one thing that some white racists used to show that it’s not a real “thing”, as no Covid outbreaks were reported from these political actions. Perhaps more could have been said about that?
Still, it’s very showing how history rhymes with itself, in how some ebola deniers existed just as how there are Covid deniers now. They’re in a different place, in a different time, but it’s something “they” came up with, and resistance to vaccines. It’s notable that distrust of public health goes along with nationalism.
I would recommend this to people interested in history or sociology. There's some, but not a lot, about the history of the diseases themselves - and several plagues are lacking - including some that were designed for racism such as giving smallpox-laden blankets to Native Americans.
Read
April 8, 2026These reviews are insane. This is a fantastic book. I'm not rating books this year but it would easily be a 5.
Did Not Finish
April 29, 2025Thanks to the publisher for the finished copy, but this one isn’t for me.
I tried it physically and the writing wasn’t working for me so I put a hold in Libby for the audio.
The audiobook absolutely didn’t work for me. The audio quality is poor as you can hear the narrator breathing and there are awkward pauses at page turns.
This turned out to be much more sociological than historical and scientific then I thought it’s would be. The sociology surrounding pandemics are important, but the way the information was shared didn’t work.
Made it 16%
I tried it physically and the writing wasn’t working for me so I put a hold in Libby for the audio.
The audiobook absolutely didn’t work for me. The audio quality is poor as you can hear the narrator breathing and there are awkward pauses at page turns.
This turned out to be much more sociological than historical and scientific then I thought it’s would be. The sociology surrounding pandemics are important, but the way the information was shared didn’t work.
Made it 16%
April 5, 2025
I would give this a 3.5. Although the material was interesting, the book needed a bit of editing to tighten it up. Bonhomme has lived in other countries and has had the opportunity to consider healthcare from a different perspective than just an American one. Her book is a discussion about the effect of poverty and race on inequities in health care; which we all clearly saw during the Covid epidemic. Although I didn’t give it a high rating, I am certainly not sorry that I read it!
July 3, 2025
An assiduously researched book that condemns slavery, colonialism, unethical medical research and poverty in an irate voice. None of it was wrong, but I had great difficulty getting past the rage and only skimmed the last five chapters.
March 26, 2026
Christmas gift from the rents. It was alright. Interesting look into healthcare etc in prisons and quarantine camps, but overall nothing really groundbreaking and I feel over simplified a couple of key things. Now hopefully into a nice light easy read I sure hope Kai hasn't brought me a 900 page epic to read
September 19, 2025
2.5 rounded up
Considering all that this book had working against it, I want to give credit to the author who is clearly passionate and committed to understanding the impacts of disease and inequity on the human condition.
What the book was working against:
1. Title is incorrect: From the start of chapter 1 I realized that this book is not what was advertised on the cover, perhaps something more along the lines of “Essays or perspectives on how injustice and corrupt systems impacted the human condition throughout 6-ish recent plagues” would be more accurate and less misleading/disappointing. As much as I agree with the overall message of this book and think this information should be talked about more, it’s hard to get past the disappointment from the title/expectation from the title.
2. Writing style: The constant jumping between journalism type reporting, personal thoughts and takes on what happened, quotes/passages from individuals during the time period, modern day quotes from other reporting about the time period, and personal memoir-like excerpts made the purpose of each section hard to follow. Both while listening to the audiobook and reading a physical copy (wanted to try both to give it a fair shot incase the audiobook just wasn’t it) I would often finish a section and not understand or remember how we got from one topic to another or why.
3. Focus: I think the goal of this book was to focus on instances of inequities such as captivity, classism, etc. instead of specific minorities but the lack of diverse examples causes the book to feel largely about instance of injustice on people of color in the US, UK, and North Africa, with some examples of queer people here and there. This is not necessarily a problem but especially with a title such as “history of the world” it feels lack-luster and as if the universality of these issues isn’t there when it truly is a universal travesty.
The message of this author is one that I whole-heartedly agree with and support - and I’m mostly disappointed by what this book could have been which is overall better than being disappointed that I chose to read it in entirety.
Considering all that this book had working against it, I want to give credit to the author who is clearly passionate and committed to understanding the impacts of disease and inequity on the human condition.
What the book was working against:
1. Title is incorrect: From the start of chapter 1 I realized that this book is not what was advertised on the cover, perhaps something more along the lines of “Essays or perspectives on how injustice and corrupt systems impacted the human condition throughout 6-ish recent plagues” would be more accurate and less misleading/disappointing. As much as I agree with the overall message of this book and think this information should be talked about more, it’s hard to get past the disappointment from the title/expectation from the title.
2. Writing style: The constant jumping between journalism type reporting, personal thoughts and takes on what happened, quotes/passages from individuals during the time period, modern day quotes from other reporting about the time period, and personal memoir-like excerpts made the purpose of each section hard to follow. Both while listening to the audiobook and reading a physical copy (wanted to try both to give it a fair shot incase the audiobook just wasn’t it) I would often finish a section and not understand or remember how we got from one topic to another or why.
3. Focus: I think the goal of this book was to focus on instances of inequities such as captivity, classism, etc. instead of specific minorities but the lack of diverse examples causes the book to feel largely about instance of injustice on people of color in the US, UK, and North Africa, with some examples of queer people here and there. This is not necessarily a problem but especially with a title such as “history of the world” it feels lack-luster and as if the universality of these issues isn’t there when it truly is a universal travesty.
The message of this author is one that I whole-heartedly agree with and support - and I’m mostly disappointed by what this book could have been which is overall better than being disappointed that I chose to read it in entirety.
July 27, 2025
Inappropriately titled, poorly organized, and reads more as stream of consciousness than anything resembling science or history. The author was so intent on framing every human experience through her own that it became apparent that what she wanted to write was an essay or autobiography rather than a work of history. The language was unnecessarily pretentious to the extent that it frequently obscured any argument she may have been trying to make. It was so poorly organized that I frequently lost track of the primary topic because of all the tangents. The narration was bad— names were mispronounced, there were awkward pauses in speech and timing, and every. Single. Account. Was delivered through an incredibly cringy attempts at various accents. Editors failed here. It was a struggle to finish and I can’t recommend it. Two stars only because it was rigorously researched.
May 26, 2025
There were some interesting thoughts here about why sickness becomes worse than than it has to be because of systemic failures. But the good is obscured by a lack of attention to personal accountability as well as a long and pointless essay about a series of times when Virginia Wolff gets ill. DNF
June 5, 2025
I wish I read the reviews on this. Minimal history, minimal science, mostly meandering, surface level tangents
March 10, 2025
I think from the very start, I was hooked in how careful Edna Bonhomme uses language specifically to articulate how class and colonialism impacts (still to this day) disease-- the spread of disease, the treatment of disease, and the harsh reality of perpetual inequity in healthcare for different bodies. It's an interesting way to look at a portion of history of the world through both globalization and the diseases that have continually plagued humanity in various forms.
I think if you're looking for an intense medical history type of book, you'd be disappointed-- this is more about the socioeconomics of disease across time and how they've interacted with colonialist structures still in place in the current dynamics of the world. This is a very political book-- as healthcare truly is, but I was surprised when I expected to just hear about how crazy diseases have changed through time. I am not that upset by my misunderstanding of the content because I thoroughly enjoyed the content of the book.
Even with a misleading title, this was an amazing book.
thanks for the ARC
I think if you're looking for an intense medical history type of book, you'd be disappointed-- this is more about the socioeconomics of disease across time and how they've interacted with colonialist structures still in place in the current dynamics of the world. This is a very political book-- as healthcare truly is, but I was surprised when I expected to just hear about how crazy diseases have changed through time. I am not that upset by my misunderstanding of the content because I thoroughly enjoyed the content of the book.
Even with a misleading title, this was an amazing book.
thanks for the ARC
August 22, 2025
The title is incredibly misleading. It’s an interesting and important topic with an unfortunately hyperbolic title that gives the reader a very different impression of what the book is going to be about.
This book analyzes the effects of race and class on disease outbreaks and treatments, particularly how confined or enslaved people were affected. There is honestly almost no discussion about diseases themselves. It’s almost entirely focused on the sociological implications of disease outbreaks and the conditions that cause them. To be completely honest, it feels much more like someone’s dissertation than a published book. And not even a dissertation on the topic the title promised.
I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I just found it to be quite dry and plodding and was unable to finish it.
This book analyzes the effects of race and class on disease outbreaks and treatments, particularly how confined or enslaved people were affected. There is honestly almost no discussion about diseases themselves. It’s almost entirely focused on the sociological implications of disease outbreaks and the conditions that cause them. To be completely honest, it feels much more like someone’s dissertation than a published book. And not even a dissertation on the topic the title promised.
I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I just found it to be quite dry and plodding and was unable to finish it.
April 16, 2025
This didn't feel like a history of "The World" in plagues as much as 'a day in the life' of certain groups of people during a few outbreaks. I expected more information about the illnesses, what they were, how they were controlled, & how they impacted the world as a whole. It still had good information, but definitely should have a different title.
October 28, 2025
poorly edited and literally not even about plagues! if you want to loosely write about prison reform activism and sex work then don't title ur book 'a history of the world in six plagues', title it 'my little tangents (with confusing sentence structures)'
Did Not Finish
April 12, 2026After reading the introduction, this book is clearly more sociology than medicine so I will pass; we already know being poor and disadvantaged increases illness, this is not revelatory. Also the audio narration is… weird; she does voices for quotes and it’s off-putting.
May 22, 2026
If this were a book of short essays detailing racial inequality in the medical field, and the author had an editor, I would give it 5 stars. As a book detailing the history of the world through 6 plagues, this book would get no stars, because that isn't what this book is.
The author touches on some very real inequities (no bodily autonomy of enslaved persons, inhumane medical practices of slave owners, medical neglect of incarcerated persons, etc.) but there's a serious lack of cohesion to the book's title and stated theme. The first chapter detailing cholera on the plantation has one story about an enslaved man forced to take a toxic medicine given to him by a slave owner. The rest of the chapter (20+ pages) is about the sexual assault and lack of autonomy of enslaved women during the birth cycle. Is this very important information that we need historical records of? Absolutely! Does that have anything to do with cholera on a plantation? No. I think the writer really needed an editor (there are very unclear sentences throughout this book on top of a stream of conscious flow) because her research is exemplary.
I gave this book 3 stars because I think that Edna Bonhomme is trying to process her own medical trauma, having lived through a personal quarantine as a child and a worldwide lockdown during the pandemic, and had this book been short personal essays about processing that trauma interspersed with short essays about medical inequality for oppressed people, it would have been an excellent read for the right audience. As a history of plagues, or even a full scope of how class differences or captivity affected epidemics, it leaves a lot to be desired.
The author touches on some very real inequities (no bodily autonomy of enslaved persons, inhumane medical practices of slave owners, medical neglect of incarcerated persons, etc.) but there's a serious lack of cohesion to the book's title and stated theme. The first chapter detailing cholera on the plantation has one story about an enslaved man forced to take a toxic medicine given to him by a slave owner. The rest of the chapter (20+ pages) is about the sexual assault and lack of autonomy of enslaved women during the birth cycle. Is this very important information that we need historical records of? Absolutely! Does that have anything to do with cholera on a plantation? No. I think the writer really needed an editor (there are very unclear sentences throughout this book on top of a stream of conscious flow) because her research is exemplary.
I gave this book 3 stars because I think that Edna Bonhomme is trying to process her own medical trauma, having lived through a personal quarantine as a child and a worldwide lockdown during the pandemic, and had this book been short personal essays about processing that trauma interspersed with short essays about medical inequality for oppressed people, it would have been an excellent read for the right audience. As a history of plagues, or even a full scope of how class differences or captivity affected epidemics, it leaves a lot to be desired.
November 2, 2025
A History of the World in Six Plagues was a disappointing read for me. I was expecting more from this book, and I was so let down, especially because it is obvious that Edna Bonhomme is a talented author and researched. The book is a collection of essays. Each essay is alright individually, even if a bit bloated and directionless, and they are all tied by the common theme of contagious disease. But the essays don’t really relate to the title, the title doesn’t relate to the stated thesis of the book (written in bold in the prologue) and that thesis isn’t necessarily supported by most of the essays (how exactly does the flu essay of chapter 3 show “that [pandemics] grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don’t bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives”? Most of that chapter is focused on Virginia Woolf’s experience of writing while bedridden). I did enjoy the chapter on Ebola the most as it did actually fit with the book’s title and stated thesis, which is disappointing as it accounts for around 15% of the book’s content. Overall, this book is a bloated mess that would have benefited a lot from proper editing and direction. Or it would have worked as a freeform essay in the style of Hypochondria by Rees. In its current form, this book is simply difficult to read even if the essays themselves are fine. 2/5.
May 29, 2026
Her arguments in this book were reductive to the point of being essentially unreadable. She writes her essays (and this book is not a history, it is a series of essays) as if every epidemic can be explained primarily through the lens of race and class. The story of ANY epidemic is an incredibly complex one and can't be distilled to a simple narrative to fit ongoing cultural conversations. I don't want to rate it below two stars because I think someone interested in how race and class play a role in the unfolding of disease might get something out of it but by the time I was a ways in I felt so misled by the title and marketing that I couldn't continue.
September 3, 2025
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book, only that I found the title intriguing but I remember praying that it wouldn’t be too scientific & 'dry' for a non-science person like me. And boy oh boy was I in for a lovely surprise. I could not put this book down & when I did, I was talking to everyone around me about what I had just read. "Did you know that…? Can you believe that…? Just imagine that…" yes, that was me 🙋🏾♀️ & I could tell that they were sick of me (no pun intended).
The book talks about the 6 most common plagues/epidemics that have been recorded in history but in a very reflective way, a not so subtle reminder that as we look for answers when epidemics occur, there is so much to learn from those that are that have occurred in our past. But the author also focuses on just how people living on the margins are affected the most during such occurrences. The 'expansion' of laboratories & unchecked tests on Africans that is happening now goes way back to the early 1900's with 'Medicine Heroes' like Robert Koch running amok in their research trials. As a Kenyan, we have a 'history' with a certain Foundation that keeps on doing reproductive health trials on our people without proper checks & it infuriates me that our government is still allowing this to happen.
I experienced a wide range of emotions while reading this book from rage to awe to sadness to solidarity…And my list of books to read just increased thanks to the author's amazing recommendations. Oh, & the chapter about Virginia Woolf was just so poignant!
This was indeed an amazing read that I would highly recommend.
June 12, 2025
A History of the World in Six Plagues begins with a powerful premise: epidemics do not affect us equally, and illness often exposes what society prefers to keep hidden—inequality, neglect, exclusion. This idea, both urgent and inescapable, pulses through the book. And yet, the way it is handled does not always do justice to its own intention.
I approached this book with anticipation, searching for reflection, resonance, and clarity. At times, I found them. There are moments of lucidity, of justified indignation. However, these are often undermined by a disjointed structure, broken sentences, and prose that loses its own voice, instead becoming entangled in the voices of others. Specific chapters feel diluted—not for lack of insight, but due to a lack of coherence.
The grammar, too, is at times careless. The text is in urgent need of a thorough editorial review—not merely to correct errors, but to shape the rhythm, give breath to the ideas, and support the seriousness of its message. Form, after all, also communicates—and here, it stumbles where it should hold steady.
And perhaps, beyond editing, the book would also benefit from a change of title. A History of the World in Six Plagues suggests a sweeping, chronological historical account—something the book doesn't quite offer. The title is misleading and doesn't reflect the more reflective, essayistic and fragmented nature of the content. There's a dissonance between what the reader is led to expect and what is actually delivered, which affects the reading experience.
In 2020, unlike many, I was not confined indoors. I worked every single day, on the frontline, moving between home and hospital. Empty streets, tense corridors, stolen breaks. I remember the call from a friend—alone, breathless, frightened. I went to her. I took precautions, of course, but compassion outweighed hesitation. At no point did it feel forbidden to care.
Perhaps this is why I found it difficult to fully relate to the dominant narrative of total lockdown—a narrative repeated by many, including my ex-partner. He held firmly to the idea that he had been forced to stay at home, unable to see anyone or move freely. I understood his experience. But when I tried to share mine, he dismissed it entirely. It was as though he needed me to have suffered in the same way, or worse, in order for my version to be valid. As if the collective trauma of 2020 could only be legitimised through identical pain. That insistence on sameness revealed a deeper discomfort: the inability to hold two truths at once.
This book gestures toward essential truths, yes. But too often they are buried beneath noise—in a text that forgets to pause, to breathe. What ought to strike cleanly instead spreads thin. And the very real suffering it attempts to articulate loses some of its impact in the labyrinth of its own language.
A vital subject, an honest intention, but an uneven execution—a book that cries out for revision to match its ambition. And, perhaps, for a title that more truthfully reflects what it truly is.
August 20, 2025
This book is definitely misnamed. if it had a title like "illness and oppression," I don't think as many people would have a problem with it. The essays felt really disconnected, which is fine if this was presented as an essay collection, but it was written as if it was a cohesive picture of something but it didn't all pull together: the individual examples were too disparate. There were a couple incorrect details that detracted from it, and the audiobook narrator mispronouncing some things, so that whittled my rating from a 3.5 down to a three. I think the author has a very good points but I think this book needs a better editor then whoever did it.
I also noticed some of the reviews about the book were complaining about how it seems political but literally every disease is political. While individual microbes don't operate on partisan lines, with every disease, politics affect who gets infected, whether they get treated, and how they get treated. It's not some total coincidence that certain minority groups are overrepresented as sufferers of numerous diseases. It is also not coincidence that those same minority groups are drastically disproportionate in deaths from those diseases compared to non-minority groups. COVID-19 and the Ebola epidemic in 2014 are both clear examples of this, as is HIV. Disadvantaged groups (such as the poor) were hit harder and had significantly more deaths than privileged groups (such as the rich).
I also noticed some of the reviews about the book were complaining about how it seems political but literally every disease is political. While individual microbes don't operate on partisan lines, with every disease, politics affect who gets infected, whether they get treated, and how they get treated. It's not some total coincidence that certain minority groups are overrepresented as sufferers of numerous diseases. It is also not coincidence that those same minority groups are drastically disproportionate in deaths from those diseases compared to non-minority groups. COVID-19 and the Ebola epidemic in 2014 are both clear examples of this, as is HIV. Disadvantaged groups (such as the poor) were hit harder and had significantly more deaths than privileged groups (such as the rich).
May 11, 2025
Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of A History of the World in Six Plagues by Edna Bonhomme. As a historian, I often use disease to teach my students about history and this book seemed to be the perfect addition to my medical history collection. However, this book is not a history of the world in six plagues. This books does talk about disease but the lack of organization and Bonhomme's many tangents to other elements that sort of connected to each chapter's topic made this a difficult book to read. Her incredible research was lost in the disorganized chapters and left me as a reader mostly annoyed. I had hoped to use this book during my research paper unit to show students how to write as a historian about the societal and historical impact of disease however I could not. Perhaps a different title would have helped the reader dive into this book in a different way but for me this book was not what I hoped it would be. Whilst Bonhomme included some unique and fascinating details about disease it was just lost.
January 7, 2025
As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is misleading and most certainly not a history of the world in six plagues. I was expecting a chronological account of society and disease over time, instead I feel like this book was lacking scope and filled with personal anecdotes. While the historical elements of the disease origins and spread are well researched and clearly explained, the author undermines herself by then discussing in great detail some singular element or a single effected group for the rest of the chapter. Overall, I'm sure there's an audience for a book like this, of people concerned with how disease shapes marginalized communities and how disease control and prevention measures are rooted in colonialism. It's certainly an important topic, but it was gravely misrepresented with the current title, which caused great disappointment.
Thank you to NetGalley for a advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.
Thank you to NetGalley for a advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.
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