Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues

• Author: Jonathan Kennedy
• Genre: Science (Nonfiction)
• Publication Date: April 18, 2023
• Publisher: Random House Audio

A sweeping look at how the major transformations in history–from the rise of Homo sapiens to the birth of capitalism–have been shaped not by humans but by germs

According to the accepted narrative of progress, humans have thrived thanks to their brains and brawn, to actions undertaken individually and collectively that have bent the arc of history. In this revelatory book, sociologist and public health professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the peddlers of this myth of human exceptionalism massively overestimate 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 the 60,000 years of our human history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that made the modern world. Bacteria and viruses were the 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 growth of the United States from an imperial backwater to a global superpower. Even Christianity rose to prominence on the back of a wave of deadly pandemics that swept through the Roman Empire in the second and third centuries. The members of this small group tended both their own sick and those abandoned by the Romans, saving many lives and helping turn this tiny, obscure sect into one of the world’s major religions.

By centering disease in his wide-ranging history of humankind, Kennedy challenges some of our most fundamental assumptions about our collective past–and urges us to view our current 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.

I’ve always been fascinated by science, in a wide range of topics. So much so, that I got my Bachelor’s degree in biology. My parents were pinning all of their hopes on me, the last of their four children, becoming a doctor. Instead, I became a mental health and addiction counselor, but I still retained a lot of interest in science. My major in college led me to study ecology and evolutionary biology, although since then I’ve discovered a huge range of scientific topics that I find fascinating and can learn more about. 

One area of history and science that I can appreciate a really good book in, is plagues and epidemics throughout history. I’m not sure why I have such a morbid fascination with this stuff, but my reading about various plagues has only increased after living through a pandemic personally. 

There are certain nonfiction books that are written in a way that it reads almost as fiction the majority of the time. Those are always the one that draw my attention the most, and a lot that change how I think, behave, and/or speak by offering more information that I was previously unaware of. Finding one that has both of those characteristics isn’t easy, but I managed it with this book. 

As far as the audiobook, it’s narrated by the author, and he turned out to have an ideal voice for reading nonfiction. He manages to provide a wealth of information, touching on nearly everything in a society that was occurring at the time of the specific plague. But where Kennedy really shines is in how he was able to link major world events and directional shifts in societies to the tiniest of warriors—microbes. 

We tend to think of political figures and military forces as being the most influential  things in winning wars and overthrowing empires, but that isn’t quite the case through the lens of history. Until the 17th century, bacteria wasn’t able to be seen. It was in 1861 that Louis Pasteur showed that bacteria was responsible for causing disease. So for nearly the entire history of humankind, people didn’t really have an understanding of what caused disease. It’s only in the last 160 years or so that we’ve known how to treat disease caused by microbes.

Kennedy takes us back through human history to when Neanderthals and Denisovans were around, and explored the diseases that they faced based on the archeological record. It was fascinating to see how organisms that can’t be seen by the naked eye made such a huge impact on societies and populations. It isn’t until he reaches plagues that occurred and were documented in written form that he is able to gather firsthand accounts and significant amounts of information. Through historical and archeological records this book takes us on a journey to see the impact a bacteria carried on a flea had on the Roman Empire under Justinian. 

This wouldn’t be a very thorough book unless it devoted some attention to the Black Plague, but reading this book helped me make the connections that the author was providing evidence of, which I’ve never heard of or even thought about. Things like how the Bubonic Plague has had such a huge impact on medieval society: it spread faster and further than at any time in the past because of trade and travel between countries or even continents.

With large portions of the population wiped out by the Black Plague, there weren’t enough people to sustain the European system of feudalism. It led to a shift towards capitalism, something that still impacts our society to this day. Kennedy talks about two opposing situations during these plagues: one where a military campaign was unsuccessful because of exposure to new microbes they had no tolerance to, and one where European colonization of the Americas was largely successful because the  explorers brought new diseases with them that the indigenous population were not resistant to. 

A lot of the time, nonfiction is one of those things that is interesting, but doesn’t really stay with me. This book isn’t one of those. I finished it days ago, but the exploration of how plagues have impacted world societies from prehistoric times to the present day, addressing how tuberculosis and COVID have impacted more recent societies. The author is a professor, and he shows himself to be a highly talented teacher with a knack for explaining complex scientific topics in a way that would be understandable to the average layperson, and it’s layered with various sources, both historical and as society is reflected in fiction. This might be a great read for you if: science or medicine is an interest of yours, reading nonfiction that reads like fiction and is easy to understand, insight into how illnesses have the power to shape societies and bring down empires.

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