Promotional Information

A timely and critically acclaimed 100-year history of pandemics, by medical historian and viral TED talk presenter - with a new chapter on COVID-19.

About the Author

Mark Honigsbaum is a medical historian, journalist, and author of five books including The Pandemic Century- One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris and The Fever Trail- In Search of the Cure for Malaria. He hosts the podcast series, 'Going Viral- The Mother of all Pandemics', marking the centenary of the 1918 influenza pandemic. His TED-ED animation, 'How Pandemics Spread', has been viewed more than 2.75 million times. He is a former chief reporter of the Observer and holds a PhD in medical history. He is currently a lecturer at City University, London.

Reviews

[A] riveting, vivid history of modern disease outbreaks ... A fascinating account of a deeply important topic—for if the past 100 years have taught us anything, it is that new diseases and viral strains will inevitably beset us, no matter how sophisticated science becomes.
*Robin McKie, The Observer*

A lively but less than reassuring read for those on exotic travels.
*Anjana Ahuja, Financial Times*

Some of the scenes in Mark Honigsbaum’s The Pandemic Century were so vivid they had me drafting movie treatments in my head ... Whether familiar or forgotten, parrot fever or Ebola, he finds striking similarities among them. And those similarities ought to make us worried about the next outbreak. If history is any guide, things may not go well.
*Carl Zimmer, New York Times Book Review*

Gripping.
*Barbara Kiser, Nature*

Mark Honigsbaum does a superb job covering a century’s worth of pandemics and the fears they invariably unleash. The moral of his cogent tale is that the next deadly pandemic is not a matter of if but of when, and preparing for that fact is a far better prescription than reacting with panic, fear, or indifference.
*Howard Markel, MD, PhD, George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Center for the History of Medicine, University of Michigan*