Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues (review)

In spite of the prediction that infectious diseases would in time be eradicated, thirty new ones have emerged in the past forty years. Smallpox is still the only human disease to have been eliminated. H1N1 swine flu joins SARS and H5N1 avian flu as the most recent new diseases to appear. Jet travel has made it easy to swiftly spread what were formerly localized diseases. The superior adaptability and speed of replication of infections require a greater understanding of them in order to advance progress toward better control. The new tools of molecular biology are serving to enhance that understanding.

Although there have been a number of encyclopedic works on pandemics in the past decade or more, this new title offers a different approach. The Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues, introduced by NIH’s Anthony S. Fauci, includes nearly three hundred signed articles by 101 authors (scholars, scientists, and physicians) from thirteen countries. An advisory board consisting of medical historians, physicians, a microbiologist, and medical history librarians provided oversight. The editor makes no claims to being comprehensive or definitive, but “seek[s] to place in the hands of the interested lay reader or student a collection of thought-stimulating and question-answering essays that will complement deeper research.” (xxiv).

Unlike the strictly chronological arrangement used by M. E. Snodgrass in World Epidemics (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2003) or the lengthy essays in K. F. Kiple’s Cambridge World History of Human Disease (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) or G. C. Kohn’s alphabetic treatment of noteworthy epidemics in Encyclopedia of Plague and Pestilence (New York: Facts on File, 2001), Byrne’s work is interdisciplinary in its treatment of the subject matter. A list of all entries at the beginning of volume 1 gives an idea of the full scope of the work. The organization of information falls into a half-a-dozen broad categories: basic descriptions of bacteria, viruses, and the body’s response to major infectious diseases; historical outbreaks, including pandemics as well as tightly focused outbreaks; the range of care-giving and treatments that developed in response to or independently of outbreaks; major theories of disease and medicine; historical and contemporary factors that affected the emergence and spread of epidemic diseases, including natural, social, economic, and political aspects; and the effects of or reactions to disease, including media and artistic responses.

The physical arrangement of the encyclopedia promotes “a rich texture of interrelationships among the entries” (xxiv). A guide to related topics suggests relationships between subjects. At the end of each entry is a list of related or see also entries as well as further readings. For example, under the entry, “Leprosy,” the reader is directed to see also Diet, Nutrition, and Epidemic Disease; Leprosy in the Pre-modern World; Leprosy in the United States; Leprosy, Societal Reactions to; Scapegoats and Epidemic Disease. Twelve references, of which two are web citations, are provided for further consultation. Within the text of every entry are bold-faced terms which allow the reader to smoothly pursue other aspects of the subject. Under “Sanatorium” the following terms are bolded: tuberculosis, Robert Koch, air, diets, physician, Thomas Sydenham, bacterium, microscope, leprosaria, germ theory, Sanitation Movement, and poverty. Throughout the work the reader is led by means of see references from entries not used to those that are used, e.g., Doctor see Empiric; Physician; Quack; Surgeon.

Illustrations as well as sidebars quoting primary sources complement the entries. A glossary, a broad bibliography including selected websites, the credentials of all the contributors, and an index complete the work. Informative, and easy to use, the encyclopedia would be a valuable addition to the reference resources in both general and specialized academic collections.