When it\u2019s hard to get to the library, it\u2019s a good time to take a look at some ebooks that you can get to from home \u2013 you can find all of these works by searching on their titles in QuickSearch on our home page.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m talking Pandemic City here \u2013 I\u2019ll cover more distracting titles another time, but these ebooks will help in better understanding pandemics that are thankfully past, all-too-present, and (sigh) yet to come.\u00a0 Most of them are firmly about one kind of pandemic or another, but others address pandemics as being only part of a larger context of potential disasters that could occur, just in case COVID-19 hasn\u2019t provided enough excitement for you already. \u00a0Anyway, while we\u2019re all a little sharper on pandemics than we were not all that long ago, good basic information never hurts:<\/p>\n
* Pandemics: What Everyone Needs To Know – Doherty, Peter C. Oxford, 2013<\/p>\n
* Pandemic Influenza: Emergency Planning And Community Preparedness – ed. by Jeffrey R. Ryan CRC Press, 2008<\/p>\n
Of course, we have an excellent work on everybody\u2019s favorite plague:<\/p>\n
* Encyclopedia Of The Black Death – Byrne, Joseph P. ABC-CLIO, 2012<\/p>\n
And to paraphrase Tina Turner, what\u2019s politics got to do with it?<\/p>\n
* When Science And Politics Collide: The Public Interest At Risk – Schneider, Robert O. Praeger, 2018<\/p>\n
COVID-19 is certainly not the only pandemic humanity has ever faced; some authors look to the past:<\/p>\n
* Flu Hunter: Unlocking The Secrets Of A Virus – Webster, Robert G. Otago University Press, 2018<\/p>\n
* The Great Manchurian Plague Of 1910-1911: The Geopolitics Of An Epidemic Disease – Summers, William C. Yale, 2012<\/p>\n
* Africa In The Time Of Cholera: A History Of Pandemics From 1815 To The Present – Echenberg, Myron. Cambridge, 2011<\/p>\n
* Plows, Plagues, And Petroleum: How Humans Took Control Of Climate – Ruddiman, William F. Princeton, 2005<\/p>\n
* The Pandemic Perhaps: Dramatic Events In A Public Culture Of Danger – Caduff, Carlo. California, 2015<\/p>\n
While other authors look to the future, at a somewhat different definition of Alvin Toffler\u2019s phrase \u2018Future Shock\u2019:<\/p>\n
* Humanity On A Tightrope: Thoughts On Empathy, Family, And Big Changes For A Viable Future – Paul R. Ehrlich and Robert E. Ornstein Rowman & Littlefield, 2010<\/p>\n
* Global Catastrophes And Trends: The Next 50 Years – Smil, Vaclav. MIT, 2008<\/p>\n
* Megadisasters: The Science Of Predicting The Next Catastrophe – Diacu, Florin. Princeton, 2009<\/p>\n
* Germ Wars: The Politics Of Microbes And America’s Landscape Of Fear – Armstrong, Melanie. California, 2017<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll finish with a couple of good print volumes in case you find yourself actually in the Consortium Library.\u00a0 First is a good overall work:<\/p>\n
* REF WA13.E564 2008, v.1 and 2\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Encyclopedia Of Pestilence, Pandemics, And Plagues – ed. by Joseph P. Byrne Greenwood, 2008<\/p>\n
And this last one is one good for nursing students, with one chapter about emerging infectious diseases and pandemics:<\/p>\n
* WC100.W38 2012\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Netter’s Infectious Diseases – [ed.] by Elaine C. Jong and Dennis L. Stevens Elsevier, 2011<\/p>\n
Still, as a postscript, this has been such a serious subject for piling one difficult title on top of another that I can\u2019t help but leave you with a diverting link to some amazing photographs that have \u2013 I promise! \u2013 absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with coronavirus, courtesy of the BBC:<\/p>\n