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A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19
In the vein of Medical Apartheid, The Color of Law, and Just Medicine, a prodigious history of global disease that reveals the devastating link between public health and systemic inequality.AIDS, cholera, the Spanish flu—epidemics become catastrophic not only by chance, but by human design. With clear-eyed research and accessible prose, A History of the World in Six Plagues shows that throughout history, outbreaks of disease have been exacerbated by the racial, economic, and sociopolitical divides we allow to bloom in times of good health. These self-defeating practices have time and again undermined public health efforts, and ultimately furthered damage to the already marginalized and vulnerable communities they target. Princeton-trained historian Edna Bonhomme’s examination of humankind’s disastrous treatment of pandemic disease takes us across place and time from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania, and from plantation-era America to our modern COVID-19-scarred world to unravel the shocking truths about the history of race, class, and gender-based discrimination in the face of disease. From Haitians targeted and ostracized as the alleged source of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, to the creation of concentration camps and depraved medical experimentations in the face of sleeping sickness in western Africa, and to marginalized communities overlooked and scapegoated while the wealthy sheltered from COVID-19 in relative safety, Bonhomme effortlessly shows us the oppressive practices that shape our history and our present. Much more than a remarkable history, A History of the World in Six Plagues is also a rising call to action for change.
315 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 11, 2025
112 people are currently reading
4519 people want to read
About the author
Edna Bonhomme
11 books8 followersEdna Bonhomme is a Haitian American scholar, writer, and former biologist. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science where she is working on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition to her book project, she is collaborating with Berlin –based artists and writers who are using decolonial methodologies and diachronic practices in order to upend uneven power dynamics in archives, pedagogy, and science.
She completed her PhD in history/history of Science at Princeton University in 2017. Using a historical materialist approach, her dissertation, “Plagued Bodies and Spaces: Medicine, Trade, and Death in Ottoman Egypt, 1705-1830 CE,” examined the commercial and geopolitical trajectory of plague and as its direct links to commercial, provincial, and imperial policies in several North African port cities. In addition to her historical training, she studied biology at Reed College (BA) and public health practitioner at Columbia University (MPH).
In addition to her academic interests, she writes for publications including but not limited to Africa is a Country, Contretemps, Der Freitag, Jacobin Magazine, Mada Masr, and Viewpoint Magazine. She has previously taught for the Princeton Prison Initiative (2012), Drexel University (2016, 2017), and Humboldt University (2018).
More information about her can be found at https://www.ednabonhomme.com.
She completed her PhD in history/history of Science at Princeton University in 2017. Using a historical materialist approach, her dissertation, “Plagued Bodies and Spaces: Medicine, Trade, and Death in Ottoman Egypt, 1705-1830 CE,” examined the commercial and geopolitical trajectory of plague and as its direct links to commercial, provincial, and imperial policies in several North African port cities. In addition to her historical training, she studied biology at Reed College (BA) and public health practitioner at Columbia University (MPH).
In addition to her academic interests, she writes for publications including but not limited to Africa is a Country, Contretemps, Der Freitag, Jacobin Magazine, Mada Masr, and Viewpoint Magazine. She has previously taught for the Princeton Prison Initiative (2012), Drexel University (2016, 2017), and Humboldt University (2018).
More information about her can be found at https://www.ednabonhomme.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
November 8, 2025
The subtitle of this book is descriptive of the contents, but titling this book “History of the World …” is a bit of hyperbole. I suppose it can be defended on the basis that the sociological reactions to the six sited plagues are probably typical examples of the way humans have reacted to disease outbreaks throughout all of history.
The author examines the history of the sociological responses to the six plagues: cholera, sleeping sickness, influenza, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19. This book focuses on class and racial inequalities as well as the injustices of confinement.
The 19th century saw at least five major cholera pandemics. Broad Street cholera outbreak in London (1854) is a famous example of the importance of sanitation and clean water for controlling the spread of cholera. The toll of cholera suffered by the slaves in the American South was particularly hard, and some authorities placed blame on the supposed innate weaknesses of the slaves while overlooking their poor living conditions.
On the subject of sleeping sickness this book examines the work of Robert Koch in East Africa and in particular how he experimented on native Africans in large numbers as if they were Guinea pigs (i.e. laboratory animals). Robert Koch is credited with numerous advances in medical science, and in the case of his investigation of sleeping sickness he was operating with a mentality typical of the colonial era.
When examining flu pandemics the book starts with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and quickly branches off to the writings of Virginia Woolf and other authors of the time in which they describe their experiences with sickness.
With Ebola the book describes how the disease was used to stigmatized Sub-Saharan Africa. With HIV/AIDS the book features the experiences of prisoners and tells of several prisoners who were activists on the issue.
In the discussion of Covid-19 the book branches into a number of directions including the stories of a couple women that the author interviewed in Europe. The author also turned this part of the book's narrative into a mini-memoir and told of her own experiences getting married in Europe during the later days of the pandemic.
It's worth noting that the author, Edna Bonhomme, is a Haitian American currently living in Berlin, Germany working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science. She is working there on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The author examines the history of the sociological responses to the six plagues: cholera, sleeping sickness, influenza, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and Covid-19. This book focuses on class and racial inequalities as well as the injustices of confinement.
The 19th century saw at least five major cholera pandemics. Broad Street cholera outbreak in London (1854) is a famous example of the importance of sanitation and clean water for controlling the spread of cholera. The toll of cholera suffered by the slaves in the American South was particularly hard, and some authorities placed blame on the supposed innate weaknesses of the slaves while overlooking their poor living conditions.
On the subject of sleeping sickness this book examines the work of Robert Koch in East Africa and in particular how he experimented on native Africans in large numbers as if they were Guinea pigs (i.e. laboratory animals). Robert Koch is credited with numerous advances in medical science, and in the case of his investigation of sleeping sickness he was operating with a mentality typical of the colonial era.
When examining flu pandemics the book starts with the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 and quickly branches off to the writings of Virginia Woolf and other authors of the time in which they describe their experiences with sickness.
With Ebola the book describes how the disease was used to stigmatized Sub-Saharan Africa. With HIV/AIDS the book features the experiences of prisoners and tells of several prisoners who were activists on the issue.
In the discussion of Covid-19 the book branches into a number of directions including the stories of a couple women that the author interviewed in Europe. The author also turned this part of the book's narrative into a mini-memoir and told of her own experiences getting married in Europe during the later days of the pandemic.
It's worth noting that the author, Edna Bonhomme, is a Haitian American currently living in Berlin, Germany working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science. She is working there on her book manuscript Ports and Pestilence in Alexandria, Tripoli, and Tunis which addresses the convergence of sanitary imperialism and traditional medicine during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
November 5, 2024
This book didn’t really tell a history of plagues, rather essays about how plagues have affected specific populations were affected by each plague - what were the leaders of countries affected doing, what preventions and cures were found, and she finalizes with her own recommendations. I feel like this book was very political and was super opinionated rather than based on facts.
Thank you for a free advanced copy in exchange for a review, Altria Books & NetGalley
Thank you for a free advanced copy in exchange for a review, Altria Books & NetGalley
dnf
July 15, 2025DNF @ 11% on 7/14/25
I’ve wanted to read this for a long time and I’m sad to say that I was disappointed. It’s clear to me that the author is brilliant. Full stop. This is very well researched and I understand the story the author is trying to paint. That said, I felt that the way the story was told was a little disorganized and nonlinear in a way that I could not enjoy. It read as a disjointed collection of essays and facts rather than a cohesive narrative and I struggled to get into it. The history here, particularly the social history of infectious disease and their political nature, is SO important, but the writing/storytelling didn’t work for me. That said, I think this is an important text and the casual racism/classism in the reviews may drive me to try again out of spite at a later date—not writing this one off completely yet.
I’ve wanted to read this for a long time and I’m sad to say that I was disappointed. It’s clear to me that the author is brilliant. Full stop. This is very well researched and I understand the story the author is trying to paint. That said, I felt that the way the story was told was a little disorganized and nonlinear in a way that I could not enjoy. It read as a disjointed collection of essays and facts rather than a cohesive narrative and I struggled to get into it. The history here, particularly the social history of infectious disease and their political nature, is SO important, but the writing/storytelling didn’t work for me. That said, I think this is an important text and the casual racism/classism in the reviews may drive me to try again out of spite at a later date—not writing this one off completely yet.
dnf
May 25, 2025DNF at around the halfway point. I was hopeful it would improve. The title is very misleading. This is a dogmatic look at the affects of disease on determined minority groups.
May 30, 2025
The title of this book caught my eye on the new non-fiction display at one of my local libraries. However, the title is absolutely not what this book is about. This is not a history of the world in six plagues or otherwise.
The author begins with cholera, which is how one realizes this isn’t going to be about the history of the world in plagues, considering it begins with the way in which cholera affected enslaved people on plantations of the American South. It is worth noting that the author defines the argument of her book right in the prologue: “The main argument of this book is that pandemics start small, grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don’t bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives. I find that humans seek easy answers in crisis, but in so doing lay the groundwork for far more profound problems later.” (The emphasis is the author’s.) She makes a very valid point; people of color and those in lower socioeconomic groups suffer far great consequences during epidemics and pandemics than those who are white and wealthy.
Even though Bonhomme’s point is extremely valid, and one that we all should reckon with across the world, this work has some serious problems. There are quite a few sentence fragments that interrupt the flow of the writing. For example, on page 178, Bonhomme writes: “Of the West African countries, Liberia had the most reported deaths, with nearly 5,000 deceased. Though some aid workers estimate that the numbers are higher.” Perhaps it’s merely an editing issue, and Bonhomme intended to use a comma instead of a period. But it happened quite a few times.
There were also many times that I felt that Bonhomme was stretching the meaning of a word. I don’t mind that when I’m reading a novel, but in a work of non-fiction, I would prefer words to retain their dictionary meaning. On page 231, Bonhomme writes: “Reflecting in ‘AIDS and Its Metaphors’, Susan Sontag intoned:…” According to Merriam-Webster, “intoned” means “say or recite with little rise and fall of the pitch of the voice,” and considering that Bonhomme is referring to something Sontag wrote, “intoned” is probably not the best choice of words. Again, this is merely one example; there are may like this.
Bonhomme also references so many people’s words and thoughts. Often, she interrupts her point to bolster support from another scholar or writer by saying, “Historian so-and-so writes that…” or “Scholar this-and-that mentions that…” My high school English teacher would be horrified if I had turned in a paper with such basic introductions of quotes. And to be fair, Bonhomme uses so many quotes from other people that it can be hard to parse her own thoughts and points. Occasionally the quote she uses seems to contradict the point she is trying to make. It becomes muddled and confusing to the reader.
I agree with Bonhomme that the world needs to reckon with the fact that marginalized groups suffer far greater consequences when plagues scour the earth. Alas, this book was in dire need of a strict editor.
The author begins with cholera, which is how one realizes this isn’t going to be about the history of the world in plagues, considering it begins with the way in which cholera affected enslaved people on plantations of the American South. It is worth noting that the author defines the argument of her book right in the prologue: “The main argument of this book is that pandemics start small, grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don’t bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives. I find that humans seek easy answers in crisis, but in so doing lay the groundwork for far more profound problems later.” (The emphasis is the author’s.) She makes a very valid point; people of color and those in lower socioeconomic groups suffer far great consequences during epidemics and pandemics than those who are white and wealthy.
Even though Bonhomme’s point is extremely valid, and one that we all should reckon with across the world, this work has some serious problems. There are quite a few sentence fragments that interrupt the flow of the writing. For example, on page 178, Bonhomme writes: “Of the West African countries, Liberia had the most reported deaths, with nearly 5,000 deceased. Though some aid workers estimate that the numbers are higher.” Perhaps it’s merely an editing issue, and Bonhomme intended to use a comma instead of a period. But it happened quite a few times.
There were also many times that I felt that Bonhomme was stretching the meaning of a word. I don’t mind that when I’m reading a novel, but in a work of non-fiction, I would prefer words to retain their dictionary meaning. On page 231, Bonhomme writes: “Reflecting in ‘AIDS and Its Metaphors’, Susan Sontag intoned:…” According to Merriam-Webster, “intoned” means “say or recite with little rise and fall of the pitch of the voice,” and considering that Bonhomme is referring to something Sontag wrote, “intoned” is probably not the best choice of words. Again, this is merely one example; there are may like this.
Bonhomme also references so many people’s words and thoughts. Often, she interrupts her point to bolster support from another scholar or writer by saying, “Historian so-and-so writes that…” or “Scholar this-and-that mentions that…” My high school English teacher would be horrified if I had turned in a paper with such basic introductions of quotes. And to be fair, Bonhomme uses so many quotes from other people that it can be hard to parse her own thoughts and points. Occasionally the quote she uses seems to contradict the point she is trying to make. It becomes muddled and confusing to the reader.
I agree with Bonhomme that the world needs to reckon with the fact that marginalized groups suffer far greater consequences when plagues scour the earth. Alas, this book was in dire need of a strict editor.
did-not-finish
April 29, 2025Thanks to the publisher for the finished copy, but this one isn’t for me.
I tried it physically and the writing wasn’t working for me so I put a hold in Libby for the audio.
The audiobook absolutely didn’t work for me. The audio quality is poor as you can hear the narrator breathing and there are awkward pauses at page turns.
This turned out to be much more sociological than historical and scientific then I thought it’s would be. The sociology surrounding pandemics are important, but the way the information was shared didn’t work.
Made it 16%
I tried it physically and the writing wasn’t working for me so I put a hold in Libby for the audio.
The audiobook absolutely didn’t work for me. The audio quality is poor as you can hear the narrator breathing and there are awkward pauses at page turns.
This turned out to be much more sociological than historical and scientific then I thought it’s would be. The sociology surrounding pandemics are important, but the way the information was shared didn’t work.
Made it 16%
December 2, 2024
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
This was not the book I expected to read. I expected more information of how each of those 6 plagues effected their victims, what sorts of care they got, and what percentage died, along with any public health (as it existed in the time and place) measures were attempted. Instead, I got a lot of sociology and discussions of racism and sexism. I do not dispute that racism, sexism, and nationalism play a key part in stemming disease, along with wealth disparity and non-white over-representation in prisons – a petri dish for any contagious disease. I expected the book to focus on the diseases and good and bad attempts at determining their cause and cures.
There were many infamous plagues throughout history that were left out, including the Justinian Plague in the 6th century.
There is a great deal about the medicalization of blackness, or non-whiteness. There is evidence of sexism within medicine, as evidenced by who drugs are tested on, the vast differences in how men and women are treated at hospitals when having heart attacks. The sociology is important, but I was looking to read of the science of the diseases.
I thought a better job could have been done with the racial protests over such things as the George Floyd murder protests during Covid-19. That was one thing that some white racists used to show that it’s not a real “thing”, as no Covid outbreaks were reported from these political actions. Perhaps more could have been said about that?
Still, it’s very showing how history rhymes with itself, in how some ebola deniers existed just as how there are Covid deniers now. They’re in a different place, in a different time, but it’s something “they” came up with, and resistance to vaccines. It’s notable that distrust of public health goes along with nationalism.
I would recommend this to people interested in history or sociology. There's some, but not a lot, about the history of the diseases themselves - and several plagues are lacking - including some that were designed for racism such as giving smallpox-laden blankets to Native Americans.
This was not the book I expected to read. I expected more information of how each of those 6 plagues effected their victims, what sorts of care they got, and what percentage died, along with any public health (as it existed in the time and place) measures were attempted. Instead, I got a lot of sociology and discussions of racism and sexism. I do not dispute that racism, sexism, and nationalism play a key part in stemming disease, along with wealth disparity and non-white over-representation in prisons – a petri dish for any contagious disease. I expected the book to focus on the diseases and good and bad attempts at determining their cause and cures.
There were many infamous plagues throughout history that were left out, including the Justinian Plague in the 6th century.
There is a great deal about the medicalization of blackness, or non-whiteness. There is evidence of sexism within medicine, as evidenced by who drugs are tested on, the vast differences in how men and women are treated at hospitals when having heart attacks. The sociology is important, but I was looking to read of the science of the diseases.
I thought a better job could have been done with the racial protests over such things as the George Floyd murder protests during Covid-19. That was one thing that some white racists used to show that it’s not a real “thing”, as no Covid outbreaks were reported from these political actions. Perhaps more could have been said about that?
Still, it’s very showing how history rhymes with itself, in how some ebola deniers existed just as how there are Covid deniers now. They’re in a different place, in a different time, but it’s something “they” came up with, and resistance to vaccines. It’s notable that distrust of public health goes along with nationalism.
I would recommend this to people interested in history or sociology. There's some, but not a lot, about the history of the diseases themselves - and several plagues are lacking - including some that were designed for racism such as giving smallpox-laden blankets to Native Americans.
August 11, 2025
I was so excited to find this book. And given the casual racism in so many of the reviews, I was determined to like it, and did find many of the earlier essays interesting, informative and edifying.
But, with that said, I get the sense that the author somehow does not understand that we are still, actively, in a pandemic (because if she did, wouldn't she have said so, in no uncertain terms, even just ONE TIME?! Wouldn't this have been the *perfect* book to discuss this reality plainly and openly?? I therefore have to assume the omission of such a conversation is an endorsement of denialistic logic) and there are *millions* of chronically ill and disabled people who have been eliminated from society, do not have freedom of movement, and are effectively being held captive (albeit under vastly different circumstances than the forms of captivity discussed in the book, such as concentration camps or enslavement) for the sake of 'back to normal.' Given the extent to which the author focuses on and reiterates the centrality of all three of these experiences to her thesis - but does not even a single time connect them to the present day, or the covid pandemic she devotes an entire chapter to - I have to assume she either did not see a need to ground her research in disability justice...or just doesn't care. I don't get the sense she really considered chronically ill, immunocompromised and otherwise covid-conscious disabled people, as a comminity, at all. Either way, it is a galling, unfathomable omission for a book like this to make - a book, fundamentally, on the violence of historical erasure, enacting erasure.
I subsequently found this book deeply spiritually and psychologically painful to finish as a result. Disappointed isn't even the word. It was soul-crushing for me, a chronically ill and disabled person who has lost tremendous access to society since the onset of 'back to normal' under Biden in 2021, to realize, as the book wound down, the author was never going to engage with the pandemic of today thoughtfully or realistically. Superficial is, alas, the only word for her foray into the coronavirus pandemic.
Her concluding message of "just live life" vis a vis covid is not only offensive to chronically ill/immunocompromised people barred from society against our will, but outright reproduces and perpetuates far-right rhetoric (this is literally a far-right script that has been absorbed into the mainstream & normalized thanks to Joe Biden and establishment Democrats funded by corporations and billionaires with a vested interest in fascism & eugenics for economical and political purposes), whose rise she calls out in the post-script without, again, bothering to acknowledge its relevance to present-day narratives of denialism and eugenics. She profiles one chronically ill person in the covid essay, which initially had me optimistic, but concludes that essay with nonsense about this person eventually capitulating to just 'living her life' after she - a cancer survivor just coming out of chemotherapy (eg severely immunocompromised) - was told by her doctor that getting vaccinated would reduce her likelihood of contracting covid. The author does not understand this cancer survivor was not only gravely misinformed by her doctor, but put in harm's way; and thus does nothing to address this tension whatsoever. Moreover, she does not caveat for how the vaccines have failed to keep up with the rapid mutations of covid...due to denialism and the complete removal of precautions from society in the name of 'back to normal', otherwise known as 'living [your] life' (where the 'your' can never apply to high-risk groups who are informed of the risks, impervious to propaganda, and desperate to survive in the absence of adequate support and/or access to care; we've been left to "fall to the wayside" as a matter of policy). A complete and utter mess.
Rather, Bonhomme, who has spent much of the book rightfully explaining the historical violence of medical doctors and the medical industrial complex broadly (as a legacy of colonialism, and particularly against Black people), and arguing in defense of medical distrust as historically-relevant & thus valid, nevertheless takes this Dr.'s word as fact, even though there is by now a bounty of published scientific and medical research that demonstrates covid vaccines *do not* prevent transmission, only aid in the reduction of severity upon contraction - in immunocompetent people. I am not antivax (!!!). I am anti-misinformation, and the belief that vaccination is all one needs to never again worry about covid is *precisely* the reason chronically ill and IC people have not been able to access society in 5-6 years. Why did the author's research not extend deep enough to confront this? The information is not hard to find, and disabled people of various experiences and backgrounds have been toiling for going on six years to educate the public about this. I have lived this - this is my lived experience and the lived experience of SO many other disabled people I encounter online. Would it have killed Bomhomme to pay attention to us? To heed our experiences for a book written about how the experiences of the most disproportionately impacted members of society in a plague are so routinely minimized and/or erased? The irony is too painful to bear. The inclusion of only a single quote from Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha (as an acknowledgment of the need for a disabled perspective) betrays the halfheartedness, at best, of her effort to weave disability justice into a book that so clearly beckons the utter centrality of such a lens.
In failing to acknowledge, in any way, the interminable nature of the covid pandemic, the very fact of this reality as an act of socio- and geopolitical violence against the disenfranchised (as Bonhomme repeatedly refers to the most marginalized), as well as the way her themes of captivity, un-freedom of movement and elimination from society are never connected with or exemplified vis a vis covid, ironically renders this book on plagues complicit in present-day pandemic denialism.
I am not trying to trash someone's hard work, especially when it covers other important histories that have been buried or minimized by a dominant narrative shaped in the image and likeness of power. That was precisely the reason I was so excited to have found this book in the first place - I appreciate the urgency of such a campaign of historical memory, because I am living, in real time, the devastation, pain, struggle and consequences of a history being warped and revised for the purpose of eliminating inconvenient realities entirely from that narrative. I also know my criticisms are complicated as a white reader critiquing a Black femme writer covering a book largely moored in Black histories. That is not lost on me, and I've done my best to be careful to shape my criticism around this complicated dynamic. I don't want to diminish or ignore that tension. But this pandemic is, for all the Black disabled/chronically ill/immunocompromised people who've been among those of us toiling to educate deniers about how pandemic denialism has eliminated us from society and directly expedited the rise of fascism and eugenics, also Black history. I just don't see how these interconnected histories ever stand a chance of being truly reclaimed, learned from, and returned to everyone they belong to if we can't even rely on each other to stand in solidarity and be honest about how past erased histories remain ensconced in our present and continue to limit our collective capacity for awareness.
But, with that said, I get the sense that the author somehow does not understand that we are still, actively, in a pandemic (because if she did, wouldn't she have said so, in no uncertain terms, even just ONE TIME?! Wouldn't this have been the *perfect* book to discuss this reality plainly and openly?? I therefore have to assume the omission of such a conversation is an endorsement of denialistic logic) and there are *millions* of chronically ill and disabled people who have been eliminated from society, do not have freedom of movement, and are effectively being held captive (albeit under vastly different circumstances than the forms of captivity discussed in the book, such as concentration camps or enslavement) for the sake of 'back to normal.' Given the extent to which the author focuses on and reiterates the centrality of all three of these experiences to her thesis - but does not even a single time connect them to the present day, or the covid pandemic she devotes an entire chapter to - I have to assume she either did not see a need to ground her research in disability justice...or just doesn't care. I don't get the sense she really considered chronically ill, immunocompromised and otherwise covid-conscious disabled people, as a comminity, at all. Either way, it is a galling, unfathomable omission for a book like this to make - a book, fundamentally, on the violence of historical erasure, enacting erasure.
I subsequently found this book deeply spiritually and psychologically painful to finish as a result. Disappointed isn't even the word. It was soul-crushing for me, a chronically ill and disabled person who has lost tremendous access to society since the onset of 'back to normal' under Biden in 2021, to realize, as the book wound down, the author was never going to engage with the pandemic of today thoughtfully or realistically. Superficial is, alas, the only word for her foray into the coronavirus pandemic.
Her concluding message of "just live life" vis a vis covid is not only offensive to chronically ill/immunocompromised people barred from society against our will, but outright reproduces and perpetuates far-right rhetoric (this is literally a far-right script that has been absorbed into the mainstream & normalized thanks to Joe Biden and establishment Democrats funded by corporations and billionaires with a vested interest in fascism & eugenics for economical and political purposes), whose rise she calls out in the post-script without, again, bothering to acknowledge its relevance to present-day narratives of denialism and eugenics. She profiles one chronically ill person in the covid essay, which initially had me optimistic, but concludes that essay with nonsense about this person eventually capitulating to just 'living her life' after she - a cancer survivor just coming out of chemotherapy (eg severely immunocompromised) - was told by her doctor that getting vaccinated would reduce her likelihood of contracting covid. The author does not understand this cancer survivor was not only gravely misinformed by her doctor, but put in harm's way; and thus does nothing to address this tension whatsoever. Moreover, she does not caveat for how the vaccines have failed to keep up with the rapid mutations of covid...due to denialism and the complete removal of precautions from society in the name of 'back to normal', otherwise known as 'living [your] life' (where the 'your' can never apply to high-risk groups who are informed of the risks, impervious to propaganda, and desperate to survive in the absence of adequate support and/or access to care; we've been left to "fall to the wayside" as a matter of policy). A complete and utter mess.
Rather, Bonhomme, who has spent much of the book rightfully explaining the historical violence of medical doctors and the medical industrial complex broadly (as a legacy of colonialism, and particularly against Black people), and arguing in defense of medical distrust as historically-relevant & thus valid, nevertheless takes this Dr.'s word as fact, even though there is by now a bounty of published scientific and medical research that demonstrates covid vaccines *do not* prevent transmission, only aid in the reduction of severity upon contraction - in immunocompetent people. I am not antivax (!!!). I am anti-misinformation, and the belief that vaccination is all one needs to never again worry about covid is *precisely* the reason chronically ill and IC people have not been able to access society in 5-6 years. Why did the author's research not extend deep enough to confront this? The information is not hard to find, and disabled people of various experiences and backgrounds have been toiling for going on six years to educate the public about this. I have lived this - this is my lived experience and the lived experience of SO many other disabled people I encounter online. Would it have killed Bomhomme to pay attention to us? To heed our experiences for a book written about how the experiences of the most disproportionately impacted members of society in a plague are so routinely minimized and/or erased? The irony is too painful to bear. The inclusion of only a single quote from Leah Lakshmi Piepzna Samarasinha (as an acknowledgment of the need for a disabled perspective) betrays the halfheartedness, at best, of her effort to weave disability justice into a book that so clearly beckons the utter centrality of such a lens.
In failing to acknowledge, in any way, the interminable nature of the covid pandemic, the very fact of this reality as an act of socio- and geopolitical violence against the disenfranchised (as Bonhomme repeatedly refers to the most marginalized), as well as the way her themes of captivity, un-freedom of movement and elimination from society are never connected with or exemplified vis a vis covid, ironically renders this book on plagues complicit in present-day pandemic denialism.
I am not trying to trash someone's hard work, especially when it covers other important histories that have been buried or minimized by a dominant narrative shaped in the image and likeness of power. That was precisely the reason I was so excited to have found this book in the first place - I appreciate the urgency of such a campaign of historical memory, because I am living, in real time, the devastation, pain, struggle and consequences of a history being warped and revised for the purpose of eliminating inconvenient realities entirely from that narrative. I also know my criticisms are complicated as a white reader critiquing a Black femme writer covering a book largely moored in Black histories. That is not lost on me, and I've done my best to be careful to shape my criticism around this complicated dynamic. I don't want to diminish or ignore that tension. But this pandemic is, for all the Black disabled/chronically ill/immunocompromised people who've been among those of us toiling to educate deniers about how pandemic denialism has eliminated us from society and directly expedited the rise of fascism and eugenics, also Black history. I just don't see how these interconnected histories ever stand a chance of being truly reclaimed, learned from, and returned to everyone they belong to if we can't even rely on each other to stand in solidarity and be honest about how past erased histories remain ensconced in our present and continue to limit our collective capacity for awareness.
April 5, 2025
I would give this a 3.5. Although the material was interesting, the book needed a bit of editing to tighten it up. Bonhomme has lived in other countries and has had the opportunity to consider healthcare from a different perspective than just an American one. Her book is a discussion about the effect of poverty and race on inequities in health care; which we all clearly saw during the Covid epidemic. Although I didn’t give it a high rating, I am certainly not sorry that I read it!
July 3, 2025
An assiduously researched book that condemns slavery, colonialism, unethical medical research and poverty in an irate voice. None of it was wrong, but I had great difficulty getting past the rage and only skimmed the last five chapters.
March 10, 2025
I think from the very start, I was hooked in how careful Edna Bonhomme uses language specifically to articulate how class and colonialism impacts (still to this day) disease-- the spread of disease, the treatment of disease, and the harsh reality of perpetual inequity in healthcare for different bodies. It's an interesting way to look at a portion of history of the world through both globalization and the diseases that have continually plagued humanity in various forms.
I think if you're looking for an intense medical history type of book, you'd be disappointed-- this is more about the socioeconomics of disease across time and how they've interacted with colonialist structures still in place in the current dynamics of the world. This is a very political book-- as healthcare truly is, but I was surprised when I expected to just hear about how crazy diseases have changed through time. I am not that upset by my misunderstanding of the content because I thoroughly enjoyed the content of the book.
Even with a misleading title, this was an amazing book.
thanks for the ARC
I think if you're looking for an intense medical history type of book, you'd be disappointed-- this is more about the socioeconomics of disease across time and how they've interacted with colonialist structures still in place in the current dynamics of the world. This is a very political book-- as healthcare truly is, but I was surprised when I expected to just hear about how crazy diseases have changed through time. I am not that upset by my misunderstanding of the content because I thoroughly enjoyed the content of the book.
Even with a misleading title, this was an amazing book.
thanks for the ARC
May 26, 2025
There were some interesting thoughts here about why sickness becomes worse than than it has to be because of systemic failures. But the good is obscured by a lack of attention to personal accountability as well as a long and pointless essay about a series of times when Virginia Wolff gets ill. DNF
September 19, 2025
2.5 rounded up
Considering all that this book had working against it, I want to give credit to the author who is clearly passionate and committed to understanding the impacts of disease and inequity on the human condition.
What the book was working against:
1. Title is incorrect: From the start of chapter 1 I realized that this book is not what was advertised on the cover, perhaps something more along the lines of “Essays or perspectives on how injustice and corrupt systems impacted the human condition throughout 6-ish recent plagues” would be more accurate and less misleading/disappointing. As much as I agree with the overall message of this book and think this information should be talked about more, it’s hard to get past the disappointment from the title/expectation from the title.
2. Writing style: The constant jumping between journalism type reporting, personal thoughts and takes on what happened, quotes/passages from individuals during the time period, modern day quotes from other reporting about the time period, and personal memoir-like excerpts made the purpose of each section hard to follow. Both while listening to the audiobook and reading a physical copy (wanted to try both to give it a fair shot incase the audiobook just wasn’t it) I would often finish a section and not understand or remember how we got from one topic to another or why.
3. Focus: I think the goal of this book was to focus on instances of inequities such as captivity, classism, etc. instead of specific minorities but the lack of diverse examples causes the book to feel largely about instance of injustice on people of color in the US, UK, and North Africa, with some examples of queer people here and there. This is not necessarily a problem but especially with a title such as “history of the world” it feels lack-luster and as if the universality of these issues isn’t there when it truly is a universal travesty.
The message of this author is one that I whole-heartedly agree with and support - and I’m mostly disappointed by what this book could have been which is overall better than being disappointed that I chose to read it in entirety.
Considering all that this book had working against it, I want to give credit to the author who is clearly passionate and committed to understanding the impacts of disease and inequity on the human condition.
What the book was working against:
1. Title is incorrect: From the start of chapter 1 I realized that this book is not what was advertised on the cover, perhaps something more along the lines of “Essays or perspectives on how injustice and corrupt systems impacted the human condition throughout 6-ish recent plagues” would be more accurate and less misleading/disappointing. As much as I agree with the overall message of this book and think this information should be talked about more, it’s hard to get past the disappointment from the title/expectation from the title.
2. Writing style: The constant jumping between journalism type reporting, personal thoughts and takes on what happened, quotes/passages from individuals during the time period, modern day quotes from other reporting about the time period, and personal memoir-like excerpts made the purpose of each section hard to follow. Both while listening to the audiobook and reading a physical copy (wanted to try both to give it a fair shot incase the audiobook just wasn’t it) I would often finish a section and not understand or remember how we got from one topic to another or why.
3. Focus: I think the goal of this book was to focus on instances of inequities such as captivity, classism, etc. instead of specific minorities but the lack of diverse examples causes the book to feel largely about instance of injustice on people of color in the US, UK, and North Africa, with some examples of queer people here and there. This is not necessarily a problem but especially with a title such as “history of the world” it feels lack-luster and as if the universality of these issues isn’t there when it truly is a universal travesty.
The message of this author is one that I whole-heartedly agree with and support - and I’m mostly disappointed by what this book could have been which is overall better than being disappointed that I chose to read it in entirety.
November 2, 2025
A History of the World in Six Plagues was a disappointing read for me. I was expecting more from this book, and I was so let down, especially because it is obvious that Edna Bonhomme is a talented author and researched. The book is a collection of essays. Each essay is alright individually, even if a bit bloated and directionless, and they are all tied by the common theme of contagious disease. But the essays don’t really relate to the title, the title doesn’t relate to the stated thesis of the book (written in bold in the prologue) and that thesis isn’t necessarily supported by most of the essays (how exactly does the flu essay of chapter 3 show “that [pandemics] grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don’t bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives”? Most of that chapter is focused on Virginia Woolf’s experience of writing while bedridden). I did enjoy the chapter on Ebola the most as it did actually fit with the book’s title and stated thesis, which is disappointing as it accounts for around 15% of the book’s content. Overall, this book is a bloated mess that would have benefited a lot from proper editing and direction. Or it would have worked as a freeform essay in the style of Hypochondria by Rees. In its current form, this book is simply difficult to read even if the essays themselves are fine. 2/5.
August 22, 2025
The title is incredibly misleading. It’s an interesting and important topic with an unfortunately hyperbolic title that gives the reader a very different impression of what the book is going to be about.
This book analyzes the effects of race and class on disease outbreaks and treatments, particularly how confined or enslaved people were affected. There is honestly almost no discussion about diseases themselves. It’s almost entirely focused on the sociological implications of disease outbreaks and the conditions that cause them. To be completely honest, it feels much more like someone’s dissertation than a published book. And not even a dissertation on the topic the title promised.
I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I just found it to be quite dry and plodding and was unable to finish it.
This book analyzes the effects of race and class on disease outbreaks and treatments, particularly how confined or enslaved people were affected. There is honestly almost no discussion about diseases themselves. It’s almost entirely focused on the sociological implications of disease outbreaks and the conditions that cause them. To be completely honest, it feels much more like someone’s dissertation than a published book. And not even a dissertation on the topic the title promised.
I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I just found it to be quite dry and plodding and was unable to finish it.
July 27, 2025
Inappropriately titled, poorly organized, and reads more as stream of consciousness than anything resembling science or history. The author was so intent on framing every human experience through her own that it became apparent that what she wanted to write was an essay or autobiography rather than a work of history. The language was unnecessarily pretentious to the extent that it frequently obscured any argument she may have been trying to make. It was so poorly organized that I frequently lost track of the primary topic because of all the tangents. The narration was bad— names were mispronounced, there were awkward pauses in speech and timing, and every. Single. Account. Was delivered through an incredibly cringy attempts at various accents. Editors failed here. It was a struggle to finish and I can’t recommend it. Two stars only because it was rigorously researched.
September 3, 2025
I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book, only that I found the title intriguing but I remember praying that it wouldn’t be too scientific & 'dry' for a non-science person like me. And boy oh boy was I in for a lovely surprise. I could not put this book down & when I did, I was talking to everyone around me about what I had just read. "Did you know that…? Can you believe that…? Just imagine that…" yes, that was me 🙋🏾♀️ & I could tell that they were sick of me (no pun intended).
The book talks about the 6 most common plagues/epidemics that have been recorded in history but in a very reflective way, a not so subtle reminder that as we look for answers when epidemics occur, there is so much to learn from those that are that have occurred in our past. But the author also focuses on just how people living on the margins are affected the most during such occurrences. The 'expansion' of laboratories & unchecked tests on Africans that is happening now goes way back to the early 1900's with 'Medicine Heroes' like Robert Koch running amok in their research trials. As a Kenyan, we have a 'history' with a certain Foundation that keeps on doing reproductive health trials on our people without proper checks & it infuriates me that our government is still allowing this to happen.
I experienced a wide range of emotions while reading this book from rage to awe to sadness to solidarity…And my list of books to read just increased thanks to the author's amazing recommendations. Oh, & the chapter about Virginia Woolf was just so poignant!
This was indeed an amazing read that I would highly recommend.
October 28, 2025
poorly edited and literally not even about plagues! if you want to loosely write about prison reform activism and sex work then don't title ur book 'a history of the world in six plagues', title it 'my little tangents (with confusing sentence structures)'
June 5, 2025
I wish I read the reviews on this. Minimal history, minimal science, mostly meandering, surface level tangents
September 5, 2024
**This book explores the lengthy history of viral breakouts in socially confined settings, such as factories, colonial camps, jails, quarantines, and plantations, and demonstrates how these small areas can foster epidemics. The book's storyline unravels the layers of sorrow by exploring the means by which imprisoned and diseased individuals manage to survive. The world described in A History of the World in Six Plagues is one in which medical progress has not shielded humanity from newly emerging illnesses.
This book is a well-reported, perceptive, and poetic narrative of the struggles humanity has faced due to pandemic sickness, as well as their disproportionate contribution to the exacerbation of racial, ethnic, class, and gender-based inequalities.
5stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book is a well-reported, perceptive, and poetic narrative of the struggles humanity has faced due to pandemic sickness, as well as their disproportionate contribution to the exacerbation of racial, ethnic, class, and gender-based inequalities.
5stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
May 30, 2025
What a disappointment. This is NOT a history of the world in six plagues. Some chapters briefly mention a disease. This is a history is confinement and class, which to be fair are in the title as well and are worthy topics. However, the main reason for my low rating-the writing was distractingly terrible. I had to stop and reread sentences multiple times because I just could not understand what the point was. A good editor could have saved this, but it would have been a massive feat.
April 16, 2025
This didn't feel like a history of "The World" in plagues as much as 'a day in the life' of certain groups of people during a few outbreaks. I expected more information about the illnesses, what they were, how they were controlled, & how they impacted the world as a whole. It still had good information, but definitely should have a different title.
December 17, 2025
A History of the World in Six Plagues by Edna Bonhomme is a remarkable and urgent work of historical synthesis that reframes how we think about epidemics—not as isolated biological events but as deeply social phenomena entangled with class, race, captivity, and power. From the brutal conditions of the cholera epidemic in the era of the slave trade to Virginia Woolf’s influenza experiences, and the devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on incarcerated women in the 1980s, Bonhomme’s narrative is both meticulously researched and compassionately rendered.
At its core, this book excels because of the author’s scholarly rigor paired with ethical imagination. A historian of science with deep training and interdisciplinary insight, Bonhomme draws from medical literature, historical records, cultural analysis, and personal narratives to create a textured map of how contagion intersects with social inequality. She situates epidemics not merely as biological catastrophes but as things that expose and amplify pre-existing injustices.
The opening chapters on cholera exemplify this approach. Rather than limiting the discussion to symptoms and science, Bonhomme places cholera squarely in the context of slavery and colonialism. She vividly reconstructs the harrowing conditions enslaved people endured—crowded dank quarters, contaminated water, insufficient nutrition, and neglect by the medical authorities of the day. These factors made enslaved populations peculiarly vulnerable to cholera outbreaks, not because of any inherent biological susceptibility, but because the social systems of exploitation and confinement made disease almost inevitable. Her documentation of these conditions is unflinching, moving beyond abstract analysis to show how power and marginalization shaped lives and deaths.
What sets Bonhomme’s work apart from other histories of disease is her ethical insistence on foregrounding the humanity of those affected. The chapter on the Spanish influenza and Virginia Woolf’s encounters with illness models this blend of erudition and empathy. Throughout the book, Bonhomme incorporates literary voices like Woolf to show that epidemics are not just events to be catalogued but experiences to be felt and interpreted. In recounting Woolf’s bouts with influenza, she captures the qualia of sickness—its bodily discomforts and psychological strains—while also showing how Woolf’s reflections on her illness informed her art. These moments of narrative sensitivity ensure that the reader does not lose sight of the individual within the sweeping historical arc.
Similarly, the book’s treatment of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, particularly as experienced by incarcerated women and marginalized communities, underscores Bonhomme’s commitment to centering those too often erased from mainstream histories. Drawing from firsthand accounts and social histories, she illustrates how HIV/AIDS became intertwined with systems of incarceration and discrimination. Women trapped in prisons faced not only the brutality of disease but also the institutional indifference of a society that viewed them as less than fully human. Bonhomme’s narrative gives voice to these women’s sufferings and resistances, portraying them not merely as statistics but as people whose lives were shaped—and often curtailed—by intersecting forces of stigma, policy, and neglect.
The book’s six central plagues—cholera, sleeping sickness, the Spanish flu, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19—are less a chronicle of pathogens than a portrait of human systems under stress. Bonhomme’s research is both broad and deep, ranging from plantation economies to colonial medical experimentation in Africa, from literary reflections to municipal responses to pandemics. Scholars and general readers alike will appreciate the array of sources she brings into conversation: archival documents, scientific studies, medical journals, firsthand testimonies, and cultural texts. This comprehensive methodology not only enhances the book’s credibility but also allows Bonhomme to articulate a compelling thesis about the social life of disease.
Equally impressive is her writing style, which resists the dryness of academic prose without sacrificing precision. Bonhomme’s prose is analytical yet accessible, thoughtful without being didactic. She manages to convey complex intersections of public health, racism, economic inequality, and governance with clarity and emotional intelligence. Her narrative steadies itself on rigorous detail, yet remains anchored in human stories—stories that linger in the reader’s mind long after the book is closed.
If there is a central lesson in A History of the World in Six Plagues, it is this: disease is never just biology. It is social, political, and ethical. Contagion interacts with structures of power, and our responses to it reflect our values—our capacity for compassion or cruelty. Bonhomme’s meticulously researched book reminds us that to understand plagues is to understand ourselves, and perhaps to see a path toward a more equitable future.
In sum, this is a profound, humane, and impeccably researched work that redefines what a history of epidemics can and should be. It is a book that demands attention not only for its scholarly achievements but also for its moral urgency.
At its core, this book excels because of the author’s scholarly rigor paired with ethical imagination. A historian of science with deep training and interdisciplinary insight, Bonhomme draws from medical literature, historical records, cultural analysis, and personal narratives to create a textured map of how contagion intersects with social inequality. She situates epidemics not merely as biological catastrophes but as things that expose and amplify pre-existing injustices.
The opening chapters on cholera exemplify this approach. Rather than limiting the discussion to symptoms and science, Bonhomme places cholera squarely in the context of slavery and colonialism. She vividly reconstructs the harrowing conditions enslaved people endured—crowded dank quarters, contaminated water, insufficient nutrition, and neglect by the medical authorities of the day. These factors made enslaved populations peculiarly vulnerable to cholera outbreaks, not because of any inherent biological susceptibility, but because the social systems of exploitation and confinement made disease almost inevitable. Her documentation of these conditions is unflinching, moving beyond abstract analysis to show how power and marginalization shaped lives and deaths.
What sets Bonhomme’s work apart from other histories of disease is her ethical insistence on foregrounding the humanity of those affected. The chapter on the Spanish influenza and Virginia Woolf’s encounters with illness models this blend of erudition and empathy. Throughout the book, Bonhomme incorporates literary voices like Woolf to show that epidemics are not just events to be catalogued but experiences to be felt and interpreted. In recounting Woolf’s bouts with influenza, she captures the qualia of sickness—its bodily discomforts and psychological strains—while also showing how Woolf’s reflections on her illness informed her art. These moments of narrative sensitivity ensure that the reader does not lose sight of the individual within the sweeping historical arc.
Similarly, the book’s treatment of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 1980s, particularly as experienced by incarcerated women and marginalized communities, underscores Bonhomme’s commitment to centering those too often erased from mainstream histories. Drawing from firsthand accounts and social histories, she illustrates how HIV/AIDS became intertwined with systems of incarceration and discrimination. Women trapped in prisons faced not only the brutality of disease but also the institutional indifference of a society that viewed them as less than fully human. Bonhomme’s narrative gives voice to these women’s sufferings and resistances, portraying them not merely as statistics but as people whose lives were shaped—and often curtailed—by intersecting forces of stigma, policy, and neglect.
The book’s six central plagues—cholera, sleeping sickness, the Spanish flu, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and COVID-19—are less a chronicle of pathogens than a portrait of human systems under stress. Bonhomme’s research is both broad and deep, ranging from plantation economies to colonial medical experimentation in Africa, from literary reflections to municipal responses to pandemics. Scholars and general readers alike will appreciate the array of sources she brings into conversation: archival documents, scientific studies, medical journals, firsthand testimonies, and cultural texts. This comprehensive methodology not only enhances the book’s credibility but also allows Bonhomme to articulate a compelling thesis about the social life of disease.
Equally impressive is her writing style, which resists the dryness of academic prose without sacrificing precision. Bonhomme’s prose is analytical yet accessible, thoughtful without being didactic. She manages to convey complex intersections of public health, racism, economic inequality, and governance with clarity and emotional intelligence. Her narrative steadies itself on rigorous detail, yet remains anchored in human stories—stories that linger in the reader’s mind long after the book is closed.
If there is a central lesson in A History of the World in Six Plagues, it is this: disease is never just biology. It is social, political, and ethical. Contagion interacts with structures of power, and our responses to it reflect our values—our capacity for compassion or cruelty. Bonhomme’s meticulously researched book reminds us that to understand plagues is to understand ourselves, and perhaps to see a path toward a more equitable future.
In sum, this is a profound, humane, and impeccably researched work that redefines what a history of epidemics can and should be. It is a book that demands attention not only for its scholarly achievements but also for its moral urgency.
Read
April 17, 2025Book Review: A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19 by Edna Bonhomme
Edna Bonhomme’s A History of the World in Six Plagues is a profound exploration of the interconnections between infectious diseases and the broader socio-political landscapes that shape our world. Through her meticulous research and cultural analysis, Bonhomme examines six pivotal plagues—Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19—highlighting how these epidemics are not merely medical events but are deeply entwined with issues of class, race, and colonialism. This book is a critical addition to the fields of historical and social epidemiology and is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the multifaceted impacts of infectious diseases.
Overview and Structure
The book is structured around six historical case studies, each providing distinct insights into how contagion has influenced human societies. Bonhomme begins with Cholera, examining its devastating effects during the 19th century and the colonial responses that exacerbated social inequalities. She subsequently addresses HIV/AIDS, illustrating how public health narratives shaped perceptions of disease in marginalized communities. Each chapter builds on the previous one, weaving a narrative that underscores the continuous thread of contagion across different social contexts.
Thematic Exploration
A central theme in Bonhomme’s work is the interplay between disease and social justice. She argues convincingly that epidemics often reveal and amplify existing societal fractures, particularly along lines of class and race. For instance, her analysis of Ebola focuses on the implications of global health interventions that, while well-intentioned, often perpetuate colonial dynamics and fail to address the root causes of vulnerability. This thematic depth is enhanced by Bonhomme’s critical examination of how capitalist interests shape health policies, ultimately influencing who suffers and who recovers during health crises.
Another significant theme is the concept of “captivity,” which Bonhomme uses to discuss the confinement of marginalized populations—both physically and metaphorically—during outbreaks. This idea resonates throughout the book, as Bonhomme deftly ties historical examples to contemporary issues, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.
Methodology and Research
Bonhomme employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining historical analysis, cultural studies, and public health perspectives. Her extensive research is evident, as she draws from a rich array of sources, including medical literature, historical documents, and contemporary media. This rigorous methodology lends credibility to her arguments and provides readers with a well-rounded understanding of the complexities surrounding each epidemic.
Writing Style and Accessibility
Bonhomme’s writing is clear and engaging, making complex ideas accessible to a broad audience. She skillfully balances academic rigor with a narrative style that invites readers to reflect on the implications of her findings. The book is well-organized, with each chapter flowing logically into the next, ensuring that readers can easily follow her arguments.
Conclusion
Edna Bonhomme’s A History of the World in Six Plagues is an enlightening and timely examination of the intricate relationships between infectious diseases and societal structures. By situating plagues within their historical and cultural contexts, Bonhomme not only deepens our understanding of the past but also challenges us to confront the ongoing implications of these epidemics in our present and future. This book deserves high praise for its insightful analysis and compelling narrative, making it a valuable contribution to both public health discourse and social justice studies.
In conclusion, A History of the World in Six Plagues is highly recommended for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the intersections of health, society, and history. Bonhomme’s work is a significant reminder of the need for equitable health policies and the importance of addressing the underlying social determinants of health.
Edna Bonhomme’s A History of the World in Six Plagues is a profound exploration of the interconnections between infectious diseases and the broader socio-political landscapes that shape our world. Through her meticulous research and cultural analysis, Bonhomme examines six pivotal plagues—Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19—highlighting how these epidemics are not merely medical events but are deeply entwined with issues of class, race, and colonialism. This book is a critical addition to the fields of historical and social epidemiology and is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the multifaceted impacts of infectious diseases.
Overview and Structure
The book is structured around six historical case studies, each providing distinct insights into how contagion has influenced human societies. Bonhomme begins with Cholera, examining its devastating effects during the 19th century and the colonial responses that exacerbated social inequalities. She subsequently addresses HIV/AIDS, illustrating how public health narratives shaped perceptions of disease in marginalized communities. Each chapter builds on the previous one, weaving a narrative that underscores the continuous thread of contagion across different social contexts.
Thematic Exploration
A central theme in Bonhomme’s work is the interplay between disease and social justice. She argues convincingly that epidemics often reveal and amplify existing societal fractures, particularly along lines of class and race. For instance, her analysis of Ebola focuses on the implications of global health interventions that, while well-intentioned, often perpetuate colonial dynamics and fail to address the root causes of vulnerability. This thematic depth is enhanced by Bonhomme’s critical examination of how capitalist interests shape health policies, ultimately influencing who suffers and who recovers during health crises.
Another significant theme is the concept of “captivity,” which Bonhomme uses to discuss the confinement of marginalized populations—both physically and metaphorically—during outbreaks. This idea resonates throughout the book, as Bonhomme deftly ties historical examples to contemporary issues, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.
Methodology and Research
Bonhomme employs a multidisciplinary approach, combining historical analysis, cultural studies, and public health perspectives. Her extensive research is evident, as she draws from a rich array of sources, including medical literature, historical documents, and contemporary media. This rigorous methodology lends credibility to her arguments and provides readers with a well-rounded understanding of the complexities surrounding each epidemic.
Writing Style and Accessibility
Bonhomme’s writing is clear and engaging, making complex ideas accessible to a broad audience. She skillfully balances academic rigor with a narrative style that invites readers to reflect on the implications of her findings. The book is well-organized, with each chapter flowing logically into the next, ensuring that readers can easily follow her arguments.
Conclusion
Edna Bonhomme’s A History of the World in Six Plagues is an enlightening and timely examination of the intricate relationships between infectious diseases and societal structures. By situating plagues within their historical and cultural contexts, Bonhomme not only deepens our understanding of the past but also challenges us to confront the ongoing implications of these epidemics in our present and future. This book deserves high praise for its insightful analysis and compelling narrative, making it a valuable contribution to both public health discourse and social justice studies.
In conclusion, A History of the World in Six Plagues is highly recommended for scholars, students, and anyone interested in the intersections of health, society, and history. Bonhomme’s work is a significant reminder of the need for equitable health policies and the importance of addressing the underlying social determinants of health.
June 12, 2025
A History of the World in Six Plagues begins with a powerful premise: epidemics do not affect us equally, and illness often exposes what society prefers to keep hidden—inequality, neglect, exclusion. This idea, both urgent and inescapable, pulses through the book. And yet, the way it is handled does not always do justice to its own intention.
I approached this book with anticipation, searching for reflection, resonance, and clarity. At times, I found them. There are moments of lucidity, of justified indignation. However, these are often undermined by a disjointed structure, broken sentences, and prose that loses its own voice, instead becoming entangled in the voices of others. Specific chapters feel diluted—not for lack of insight, but due to a lack of coherence.
The grammar, too, is at times careless. The text is in urgent need of a thorough editorial review—not merely to correct errors, but to shape the rhythm, give breath to the ideas, and support the seriousness of its message. Form, after all, also communicates—and here, it stumbles where it should hold steady.
And perhaps, beyond editing, the book would also benefit from a change of title. A History of the World in Six Plagues suggests a sweeping, chronological historical account—something the book doesn't quite offer. The title is misleading and doesn't reflect the more reflective, essayistic and fragmented nature of the content. There's a dissonance between what the reader is led to expect and what is actually delivered, which affects the reading experience.
In 2020, unlike many, I was not confined indoors. I worked every single day, on the frontline, moving between home and hospital. Empty streets, tense corridors, stolen breaks. I remember the call from a friend—alone, breathless, frightened. I went to her. I took precautions, of course, but compassion outweighed hesitation. At no point did it feel forbidden to care.
Perhaps this is why I found it difficult to fully relate to the dominant narrative of total lockdown—a narrative repeated by many, including my ex-partner. He held firmly to the idea that he had been forced to stay at home, unable to see anyone or move freely. I understood his experience. But when I tried to share mine, he dismissed it entirely. It was as though he needed me to have suffered in the same way, or worse, in order for my version to be valid. As if the collective trauma of 2020 could only be legitimised through identical pain. That insistence on sameness revealed a deeper discomfort: the inability to hold two truths at once.
This book gestures toward essential truths, yes. But too often they are buried beneath noise—in a text that forgets to pause, to breathe. What ought to strike cleanly instead spreads thin. And the very real suffering it attempts to articulate loses some of its impact in the labyrinth of its own language.
A vital subject, an honest intention, but an uneven execution—a book that cries out for revision to match its ambition. And, perhaps, for a title that more truthfully reflects what it truly is.
January 22, 2025
My thanks to both NetGalley and Atria/One Signal Publishers for an advance copy of this book that looks at how the polices that medical and governments put into place to deal with epidemics and outbreaks, show the lack of lessons learned from past incidents, making things sometimes much worse, and hurting those who are already at the margins of survival.
Health issues are a political issue, one that we seem unable to deal with either controlling the price of, dispensing aid, or how far a government can go to help, or in some cases hinder people. Health is also a way of controlling people. One can't go far in life if one is sick constantly. Health is also a question of bias. Poor people have disease. The other has disease. We can't let them in here, because we can't let out pure children get sick. Everyone becomes an expert, and those who have trained, or have experienced diseases and outbreaks, even prevention are ignored. And people die. A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19 by educator and writer Edna Bonhomme is a study of how the ways of dealing with diseases, from ignoring to containment, created many lessons, most of them ignored, that still continue to hurt people today.
The book begins with the author discussing being ill as a child, with typhoid. The author spent months in a hospital, trying to get healthy, and not making others ill. The author is also of Haitian background and as this was the time of HIV and Haitians were being used as scapegoats for many ills, the author has a familiarity with the way that health issues can be used to control, and cut-off people, with the excuse of helping others. One thing that author makes clear is that no one seems to learn anything from outbreaks or pandemics. There is always the same fear, the same problems, the same deniers, and the fears of treatment. And of finding someone, usually marginalized people to blame.
The book looks at a variety of different outbreaks from Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19 and looks at fear, discrimination and lack of empathy affects many different people. I was amazed as I read that almost everything came down to it being someone' fault. China, poor black slaves, Haitians, gays, dirty people. This looks at particular people and is not a book that covers the history of the pandemics, just how these dealing with diseases reflect the feelings of many in government. Which continues today. As we memory-hole Covid, and continue the same failed polices, insurance based on jobs, a lack of preventative health programs, the author suggests that we are just making time until the next big pandemic, and how many rights might be sacrificed, and more money and control gained by select people. A interesting book, one that left me thinking about a lot of different things, none of them good.
Health issues are a political issue, one that we seem unable to deal with either controlling the price of, dispensing aid, or how far a government can go to help, or in some cases hinder people. Health is also a way of controlling people. One can't go far in life if one is sick constantly. Health is also a question of bias. Poor people have disease. The other has disease. We can't let them in here, because we can't let out pure children get sick. Everyone becomes an expert, and those who have trained, or have experienced diseases and outbreaks, even prevention are ignored. And people die. A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19 by educator and writer Edna Bonhomme is a study of how the ways of dealing with diseases, from ignoring to containment, created many lessons, most of them ignored, that still continue to hurt people today.
The book begins with the author discussing being ill as a child, with typhoid. The author spent months in a hospital, trying to get healthy, and not making others ill. The author is also of Haitian background and as this was the time of HIV and Haitians were being used as scapegoats for many ills, the author has a familiarity with the way that health issues can be used to control, and cut-off people, with the excuse of helping others. One thing that author makes clear is that no one seems to learn anything from outbreaks or pandemics. There is always the same fear, the same problems, the same deniers, and the fears of treatment. And of finding someone, usually marginalized people to blame.
The book looks at a variety of different outbreaks from Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19 and looks at fear, discrimination and lack of empathy affects many different people. I was amazed as I read that almost everything came down to it being someone' fault. China, poor black slaves, Haitians, gays, dirty people. This looks at particular people and is not a book that covers the history of the pandemics, just how these dealing with diseases reflect the feelings of many in government. Which continues today. As we memory-hole Covid, and continue the same failed polices, insurance based on jobs, a lack of preventative health programs, the author suggests that we are just making time until the next big pandemic, and how many rights might be sacrificed, and more money and control gained by select people. A interesting book, one that left me thinking about a lot of different things, none of them good.
March 11, 2025
Edna Bonhomme's A History of the World in Six Plagues uses six plagues as an entry point for exploring different facets of society and their inequalities. It is not a straightforward history of sickness, outbreak, death and recovery, instead Bonhomme uses the plagues to discuss the way systems of oppression have operated, such as chapter one's focus on the treatment of Cholera to enslaved Africans. As stated in the introduction (6% in the NetGalley Reader) "The main argument of this book is that pandemics start small, grow large due to negligence, and leave rot behind that we generally don't bother to clean up before the next pandemic arrives." Bonhomme approaches this topic by blending the history of science with a background in biology and public health, alongside Bonhomme's personal background as a descendant of a Haitian working-class family.
Each plague has its own chapter, with one extra, as well as a prologue and postscript. Chapters begin by detailing a specific disease, pandemic or illness before transitioning to discuss a particular group or even individual. For example, chapter 3 is focused on the early 20th century influenza outbreak and spends the most time detailing Virginia Woolf's experience of the sickness. The plagues used to frame discussions are: cholera, Sleeping Sickness, Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19.
This is no simple medical history, instead it seeks to more deeply engage with how sickness and disease re-enforce or exacerbate social divisions, with those most in need left or restricted to their own devices. Bonhomme reflects on a childhood experience of being confined to a hospital with typhoid fever as well as the COVID-19 Pandemic Lock-downs.
Who gains from sickness? Frequently the rich, why else does sickness always have the possibility of bankruptcy in the United States.
Recommended to readers or researchers of health and medicine, cultural analysis, or the role of disease or pandemics in colonialism and capitalism.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Each plague has its own chapter, with one extra, as well as a prologue and postscript. Chapters begin by detailing a specific disease, pandemic or illness before transitioning to discuss a particular group or even individual. For example, chapter 3 is focused on the early 20th century influenza outbreak and spends the most time detailing Virginia Woolf's experience of the sickness. The plagues used to frame discussions are: cholera, Sleeping Sickness, Spanish Flu, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and COVID-19.
This is no simple medical history, instead it seeks to more deeply engage with how sickness and disease re-enforce or exacerbate social divisions, with those most in need left or restricted to their own devices. Bonhomme reflects on a childhood experience of being confined to a hospital with typhoid fever as well as the COVID-19 Pandemic Lock-downs.
Who gains from sickness? Frequently the rich, why else does sickness always have the possibility of bankruptcy in the United States.
Recommended to readers or researchers of health and medicine, cultural analysis, or the role of disease or pandemics in colonialism and capitalism.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
January 11, 2025
I think the editors did a great disservice to this book by giving it a title that is clearly evocative of another recently published and well-received work, Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues. Aside from the title, these two books have very little in common. "Pathogenesis" is a typical popular-science book about how infectious diseases have influenced human civilization (and was conceived as a much-needed update to another famous work, Plagues and Peoples). Edna Bonhomme's book is more of a personal essay, focusing on issues of identity. As she writes in the prologue:
„As a historian of science trained in biology and public health, I analyze those histories with acuity, and as a working-class person of Haitian descent, I approach pandemics with compassion”.
I agree with other reviewers that this book was too political and biased for my taste. But I guess I was misled by the title, I suppose for some people it can be a more rewarding read.
Thanks to the publisher, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
„As a historian of science trained in biology and public health, I analyze those histories with acuity, and as a working-class person of Haitian descent, I approach pandemics with compassion”.
I agree with other reviewers that this book was too political and biased for my taste. But I guess I was misled by the title, I suppose for some people it can be a more rewarding read.
Thanks to the publisher, Atria Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.
March 22, 2025
The history of humanity is intertwined with bacteria and viruses. Most death has always come from some kind of infection. And we can learn a lot about human history from how humans have approached infections.
In A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19 (galley received as part of early review program), Edna Bonhomme considered how doctors addressed cholera on the slave plantations in the American South, how Europeans considered Africa as a “laboratory” to learn about sleeping sickness and the like, how H1N1 spread around the world in 1918, how inmates worked together to support inmates with HIV/AIDS when everyone else would not, how Ebola was, or was not, well managed in Liberia, and how Liberia was thus viewed by the rest of the world, how four different people from different situations managed the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, and the deplorable conditions and illnesses which attend to them in Haitian prisons.
In this way we learn a lot about society: who is valued and who is not; who is deemed “the other” and concern about contagion; the limitations of humanitarianism; a lot of the ugliness of a supremacist posture.
This is not a systematic history of the world or a systematic exploration into plagues, but the author does well at demonstrating what we can learn about ourselves from these experiences of plague and how they were addressed.
In A History of the World in Six Plagues: How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to COVID-19 (galley received as part of early review program), Edna Bonhomme considered how doctors addressed cholera on the slave plantations in the American South, how Europeans considered Africa as a “laboratory” to learn about sleeping sickness and the like, how H1N1 spread around the world in 1918, how inmates worked together to support inmates with HIV/AIDS when everyone else would not, how Ebola was, or was not, well managed in Liberia, and how Liberia was thus viewed by the rest of the world, how four different people from different situations managed the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany, and the deplorable conditions and illnesses which attend to them in Haitian prisons.
In this way we learn a lot about society: who is valued and who is not; who is deemed “the other” and concern about contagion; the limitations of humanitarianism; a lot of the ugliness of a supremacist posture.
This is not a systematic history of the world or a systematic exploration into plagues, but the author does well at demonstrating what we can learn about ourselves from these experiences of plague and how they were addressed.
May 25, 2025
Book synopsis: marginalised communities are more vulnerable to communicable diseases and ethical violations. The author covers interesting material, but the title is misleading, the author does not cover the actual historical accounts of epidemics and pandemics, only minor infectious diseases in the last century, but glosses over major epidemics. The book doesn’t really tell a history of epidemics in human history but rather essays on how specific localized epidemics affected certain minority populations that were affected by each epidemic, the writing very political and was very opinionated, talks about affected individuals instead of being globally objective and scientific.
How did the author choose these specific conditions to discuss with the socio-political response? What about the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis)? What about smallpox? What about other smaller epidemics like typhus? The chapters seem to follow the author’s own movements rather than an objective overview of the epidemics of world history.
2.5/5. It’s a decently written book, but in a post-COVID era there are many other books on epidemics more deeply researched and discussed.
Chapter1: American black oppression and cholera
Chapter2: East African trypanosomiasis
Chapter3: WW1 H1N1 Spanish influenza
Chapter4: Female prisoner(s)? with HIV
Chapter5: Ebola haemorrhagic fever
Chapter6: COVID19 Coronavirus
Chapter7: Cholera (again?) – the author was physically present in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
How did the author choose these specific conditions to discuss with the socio-political response? What about the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis)? What about smallpox? What about other smaller epidemics like typhus? The chapters seem to follow the author’s own movements rather than an objective overview of the epidemics of world history.
2.5/5. It’s a decently written book, but in a post-COVID era there are many other books on epidemics more deeply researched and discussed.
Chapter1: American black oppression and cholera
Chapter2: East African trypanosomiasis
Chapter3: WW1 H1N1 Spanish influenza
Chapter4: Female prisoner(s)? with HIV
Chapter5: Ebola haemorrhagic fever
Chapter6: COVID19 Coronavirus
Chapter7: Cholera (again?) – the author was physically present in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
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