Morbid & Curious Book Club-Pathogenesis:A History of the World in 8 Plagues

Morbid & Curious Book Club

Come join Booksellers Hanna and Rebecca G at the Morbid & Curious Book Club as we delve into the fascinating book Pathogenesis. This month, we will explore A History of the World in 8 Plagues together. Get ready to discuss infectious diseases and their impact on human history. If you're morbidly curious about plagues and their stories, this event is perfect for you. Let's unravel the mysteries of these historical epidemics in person at Meriwether Cider in Garden City!

Ticket includes a copy of Pathogenesis: A History of the World in 8 Plagues and $5 towards a beverage at .

• Come to meet new people and have a great conversation!
• Discussion led by Rediscovered Books Booksellers, Hanna and Rebecca G
• Seating is limited to 12 participants, registration is required for each person.
• Haven’t finished the book? Come anyway, but we cannot promise no spoilers. 

If you have already purchased the book from Rediscovered Books, please email a copy of your receipt to [email protected] and we will issue you a gift card equal to the cost of the book after you have registered.

About the Book:

According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, collectively bending the arc of history. But in this revelatory book, Professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires.

Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through sixty thousand years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that have made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were protagonists in the demise of the Neanderthals, the growth of Islam, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the devastation wrought by European colonialism, and the evolution of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence in the wake of a series of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries: Caring for the sick turned what was a tiny sect into one of the world's major religions.

By placing disease at the center of his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of the most fundamental assumptions about our collective past--and urges us to view this moment as another disease-driven inflection point that will change the course of history. Provocative and brimming with insight, Pathogenesis transforms our understanding of the human story.

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