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Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu

by Philip Alcabes

Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu Cover

ISBN13: 9781586486181
ISBN10: 1586486187
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

The average individual is far more likely to die in a car accident than from a communicable disease…yet we are still much more fearful of the epidemic. Even at our most level-headed, the thought of an epidemic can inspire terror. As Philip Alcabes persuasively argues in Dread, our anxieties about epidemics are created not so much by the germ or microbe in question—or the actual risks of contagion—but by the unknown, the undesirable, and the misunderstood.

Alcabes examines epidemics through history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times. From Typhoid Mary to bioterrorism, as new outbreaks are unleashed or imagined, new fears surface, new enemies are born, and new behaviors emerge. Dread dissects the fascinating story of the imagined epidemic: the one that we think is happening, or might happen; the one that disguises moral judgments and political agendas, the one that ultimately expresses our deepest fears.

Synopsis:

Why we invent epidemic threats, create false terrors, and let irrational anxiety take over our lives

Synopsis:

The average individual is far more likely to die in a car accident than from a communicable disease…yet we are still much more fearful of the epidemic. Even at our most level-headed, the thought of an epidemic can inspire terror. As Philip Alcabes persuasively argues in Dread, our anxieties about epidemics are created not so much by the germ or microbe in question—or the actual risks of contagion—but by the unknown, the undesirable, and the misunderstood.

Alcabes examines epidemics through history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times. From Typhoid Mary to bioterrorism, as new outbreaks are unleashed or imagined, new fears surface, new enemies are born, and new behaviors emerge. Dread dissects the fascinating story of the imagined epidemic: the one that we think is happening, or might happen; the one that disguises moral judgments and political agendas, the one that ultimately expresses our deepest fears.

About the Author

Philip Alcabes is an Associate Professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College of the City University of New York and Visiting Clinical Associate Professor at the Yale School of Nursing. He has written op-eds for the Washington Post and contributed essays to The American Scholar, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He lives in the Bronx, New York.

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NYC_Mom, May 1, 2009 (view all comments by NYC_Mom)
This is a timely and brilliant book. As the panic over swine flu wanes, it's easy to agree with Alcabes's point about our investment in disaster narratives being more powerful than our ability to be rational.

This book comments on the way people and governments have manipulated our fears of disaster for unexpected and non-useful purposes. Selling newspapers, consolidating power, for example. We need to hew to the basics--a good standard of living for everyone. I found this argument really enlightening. Though it is counter-intuitive, Alcabes really persuades, with lots of facts and really good arguments. He covers SARS and AIDS and Obesity and Autism, and more.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781586486181
Author:
Alcabes, Philip
Publisher:
PublicAffairs
Subject:
General science
Subject:
General
Subject:
General History
Subject:
History
Subject:
Infectious Diseases
Subject:
Social history
Subject:
Epidemics
Subject:
Fear
Subject:
Health behavior
Subject:
Communicable diseases -- History.
Subject:
Health and Medicine-History of Medicine
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Publication Date:
20090431
Binding:
HARDCOVER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
B/W photos throughout on text
Pages:
336
Dimensions:
9.30x6.50x1.30 in. 1.20 lbs.

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Dread: How Fear and Fantasy Have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu Used Hardcover
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Product details 336 pages PublicAffairs - English 9781586486181 Reviews:
"Synopsis" by ,
Why we invent epidemic threats, create false terrors, and let irrational anxiety take over our lives
"Synopsis" by , The average individual is far more likely to die in a car accident than from a communicable disease…yet we are still much more fearful of the epidemic. Even at our most level-headed, the thought of an epidemic can inspire terror. As Philip Alcabes persuasively argues in Dread, our anxieties about epidemics are created not so much by the germ or microbe in question—or the actual risks of contagion—but by the unknown, the undesirable, and the misunderstood.

Alcabes examines epidemics through history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times. From Typhoid Mary to bioterrorism, as new outbreaks are unleashed or imagined, new fears surface, new enemies are born, and new behaviors emerge. Dread dissects the fascinating story of the imagined epidemic: the one that we think is happening, or might happen; the one that disguises moral judgments and political agendas, the one that ultimately expresses our deepest fears.

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