| View Larger Image | Dread: How Fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu | Hardcoverby Philip Alcabes (Author)
| List Price: | $26.95 | | Price: | $17.79 | | You Save: | $9.16 (34%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Hardcover | | Publisher: | PublicAffairs | | Edition: | 1st Edition | | Page Count: | 336 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 13, 2009 | | Sales Rank: | 93,628rd |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9781586486181
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
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. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 9 reviews)
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Poorly written by Brett (A2, Michigan)  2 Stars
July 25, 2009
I have to disagree with the other reviews- this book is poorly written with many run-on sentences that lead to nowhere. He does put in various pieces of historical and scientific data that are interesting, but at the end of most of his sentences, paragraphs, and chapters, I was left wondering what his overall point was beyond simple generalizations.
The interesting part about epidemics to me is society's ability to take half-truths about science and warp them to serve their own purposes. This seemed to be what he was getting at, at times. However, to slight "germ theory" as a main culprit in sensationalizing epidemics is completely off-base. Without germ theory, most of us wouldn't be writing these opinions, we'd be dead. It's how politicians, leaders, the media etc. distort this theory; not a problem with the theory itself.
And to somehow imply that we shouldn't be preaching safe sex because syphilis has peaks and valleys that we don't understand despite no change in sexual activity... really?
This is a really interesting subject and I really wanted to enjoy this book, but overall it was painful to read.
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History, science, and health issues blend by Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)  5 Stars
July 11, 2009
History, science, and health issues blend in DREAD: HOW FEAR AND FANTASY HAVE FUELED EPIDEMICS FROM THE BLACK DEATH TO AVIAN FLU. Humans have lived in dread of epidemics for all of history - yet today deaths from epidemics are rare in the developed world. The evidences of epidemics in Western society and their lasting effects makes for a key survey any health or social sciences collection, in particular, will relish.
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excellent revealer of blind spots by Tenacious (San Francisco, CA USA) 5 Stars
May 31, 2009
Alcabes has taken a shot at revealing the hypocrisies built in to unquestioned cultural constructs based on fear and reaction. For many in the health professions what he has to say is quite difficult to accept -- public health and the CDC are supposed to be widely accepted last bastions of the remaining honor of health care so damaged by business considerations. That these would be also riddled by cultural misapprehensions that have infected the rest of health care in America is a very hard pill to swallow. Give this book to your doctor and watch squirming and denial ensue.
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For those who wants to know the truth by Anastasia Prozorova (Montreal, Canada) 5 Stars
May 29, 2009
An easy-to-read, very well written book. At the same time, it has that deepness of thought that makes you feel like you did see the surface of the truth about the 'epidemics', but still can't grasp it all at once. The greatest thing a good book can do is to make you think. That's exactly what this book does: makes you think, makes you want to learn more, makes you search for the answers... A++
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DREAD by hannah arthur (new york city)  4 Stars
April 28, 2009
Philip Alcabes is a public scholar. By that I mean a cross-disciplinary professor who reaches beyond the ivy walls to make his ideas accessible to those outside of the academy. Anyone who is familiar with Dr. Alcabes' essays in The American Scholar and The Chronicle of Higher Education knows he routinely questions generally accepted wisdom. Dread is Dr. Alcabes' first book. I approached it the way I approach all his writings, wondering which sacred cows of mine he will slay. As a Jew, I was riveted by his discussion of the plague and the belief that Jews were responsible for the epidemic, perhaps because so many of them were physicians who knew a lot about poisons. As a nutritionist, I was equally interested in Dr. Alcabes' examination of obesity--not the obesity epidemic per se, but of the people whose careers depend on it. Dr Alcabes never fails to disappoint! If you dread having your beliefs challenged, don't read this book. But if you want to learn about the intersections of history, geography, religion, economics, mores and disease, Dread is just what the doctor ordered.
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