Controlling Contagion: Epidemics and Institutions from the Black Death to Covid

by Sheilagh Ogilvie

Genres: History

544 pages, Hardcover

Published February 18, 2025

About the author

Sheilagh Ogilvie is professor of economic history at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mighty historical overview of how different institutions -- state, market, community, religion, family, and medical guilds and associations -- influence how societies react to epidemic disease from the Black Death through COVID-19. The author highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each institution and offers useful thoughts about particularly effective combinations to the extent the historical data allow. I found the bits about the history of variolation and immunization, as well as the history of medical guilds, especially interesting. Full disclosure: the author is an old friend from gradual school days.

[Benji]

Societies learn both to innovate and to coordinate. A well-functioning market, a temperate state, and institutional diversity work together to create an openness to innovation. These features also help societies coordinate among individuals and organizations that have diverse capacities and interests.

Just like the patterns that emerge from the past seven centuries of epidemics, this book is descriptive, occasionally suggestive, but seldom definitively causal.