The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Johns Hopkins Biographies of Disease) Hardcover – December 18, 2007
Author: Visit Amazon's Randall M. Packard Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0801887127 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Review
What Randall M. Packard does masterfully in his book on malaria is to integrate the biological complexity of the disease into its historical, social and economic context, even if he stops short of drawing all the obvious conclusions from the data he so ably presents.
(G. Dunkel Workers World)Useful in collections that support tropical medicine, public health, and the history of medicine.
(Choice)A fine book... This short book carries through its thoughtful approach with admirable power and consistency.
(Bill Bynum Lancet)This is an excellent and well-balanced book that will be of interest to a wide audience.
(Brian Greenwood Nature Medicine)This is an interesting read—a short, well-written, and exceptionally well-documented history and commentary on the possible control—and, hopefully, eradication—of one of the world's major diseases.
(Markley H. Boyer, MD, DPhil, MPH JAMA)This is a remarkable book that will be of great interest to any historian working on the history of disease and to those historians who deal with the difficult question of how to write sound and clear general histories.
(Marcos Cueto Bulletin of the History of Medicine)Packard's is a terrific book that will guide the next generation of medical and environmental historians as global challenges to health persist and expand in the wake of unintended environmental change.
(James C. McCann International Journal of African Historical Studies)The Making of a Tropical Disease is a vigorously argued and accessibly narrated ecological history of malaria, a contribution as much to social medicine and studies in the political economy of disease as to medical history.
(Warwick Anderson Isis)What gives a special energy to this volume is his conviction that the history of malaria is embedded in the history of development and that the lessons of this history must be applied to contemporary development policies.
(Marcia Wright Journal of Global History)Packard’s lightness of touch allows his book to be both enjoyable and compelling, despite the frustration and heartbreak in his story.
(Anne Hardy Journal of Interdisciplinary History)An excellent and well-balanced book that will be of interest to a wide audience. It should be required reading for all those contemplating a second malaria eradication campaign.
(Brian Greenwood Nature Medicine)The author can be congratulated for having tackled such a complex and difficult topic. His research and depth of knowledge on the topic as a historian are just amazing. He has also provided excellent references for further studies.
(Walter Kipp Canadian Studies in Population)Authoritative, fascinating, and eye-opening.
(Book Bargains and Previews)From the Back Cover
2008 Book of the Year, End Malaria Awards, Malaria Foundation International
Malaria sickens hundreds of millions of people—and kills one to three million—each year. Despite massive efforts to eradicate the disease, it remains a major public health problem in poorer tropical regions. But malaria has not always been concentrated in tropical areas. How did other regions control malaria, and why does the disease still flourish in parts of the globe.
This acclaimed history of malaria traces the natural and social forces that help the disease spread and make it deadly.
"This is an interesting read—a short, well-written, and exceptionally well-documented history and commentary on the possible control—and, hopefully, eradication—of one of the world's major diseases."— JAMA
"A vigorously argued and accessibly narrated ecological history of malaria, a contribution as much to social medicine and studies in the political economy of disease as to medical history."— Isis
"This is a remarkable book that will be of great interest to any historian working on the history of disease and to those historians who deal with the difficult question of how to write sound and clear general histories."— Bulletin of the History of Medicine
"An excellent and well-balanced book that will be of interest to a wide audience. It should be required reading for all those contemplating a second malaria eradication campaign."— Nature Medicine
Direct download links available for The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Johns Hopkins Biographies of Disease) Hardcover – December 18, 2007
- Series: Johns Hopkins Biographies of Disease
- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1 edition (December 18, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801887127
- ISBN-13: 978-0801887123
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #666,760 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17 in Books > Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences > Medicine > Clinical > Tropical Medicine
- #25 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Infectious Disease > Tropical Medicine
Once upon a time there was a mosquito. And this mosquito carried something with her and gave it to everyone she met. Men in peculiar outfits sprayed all over the land, and the mosquito was banished, in that land at least.
This is the story of malaria. The story that I've heard.
But the actual story of Malaria is a lot more complex. Who would have, for instance, expected a history on a supposed tropical disease to begin with a study of a city in Northern Russia? The Making of a Tropical Disease does just that.
Honestly, this isn't always a fun book to read. Some books are very good about inspiration and motivation and glide along in presenting the chosen perspective. This isn't about inspiration or motivation. It is more ambitious. There are times in which it slows down and gets into details and spends a long time one what might seem a minor point. But, this negative isn't really a criticism. These seemingly minor points are in fact important, and it is the tendency to gloss over such points that undermine so many attempts to respond.
This certainly is a well written book. Randall Packard is a very good writer, and even with my above comment I must add he does a wonderful job of making personal connection. In his journey through the history of where malaria spread he does not only relate facts and figures. He tells a story, and in telling that story has written a very, very solid history.
But more than a history The Making of a Tropical Disease is also really a book on global policy. Packard does not hide this fact. He is making the point that malaria is not simply a story about random mosquitoes who live in unfortunate places.
Dr. Randall M. Packard (Ph.D. not M.D.) did a vast amount of research to provide the reader with a daunting scenario - that malaria is a disease on the rise within the world and worse than that it has returned with a vengeance! The author writes an authoritative and masterful book capturing a great deal of information although he modeslty adds "a short history of malaria" on the title page of his book. The fact is, malaria is a *global* disease which although confined *mostly* to the tropics, has also developed elsewhere in northern climates when the conditions are right. The author captures the reader's attention from the first chapter by providing three global narratives which illustrate the complex factors involved in why malaria persists as a worldwide menacing disease. The first example illustrates how changing agricultural and economic factors in Archangel, a northern port city of Russia, about 125 miles from the Arctic Circle, in the 1920s, created the conditions for an unlikely tropical disease to strike a population not considered at risk. Due to the Russian Revolution, farming techniques changed with a vast decrease in production. There were meager food reserves and live stock was scarce. The Bolsheviks confiscated produce or destroyed much of the previous harvest and animals. Factories closed, shipping was halted and famine arose. First there was a drought followed by a flood. The conditions were ripe for the local species of anopheles mosquito to breed. A Western blockade of shipping prevented the poverty stricken starving people from obtaining quinine, the only medicine known to be effective against malaria. A local epidemic arose which was part of a larger regional epidimic hitting Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Volga Regions.
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