Thanks to a the pioneering efforts of disease researchers and immunologists and a highly effective and concerted global vaccination effort, one of the most dread diseases of the twentieth century has been largely wiped out. For most people, polio is no longer the terrifying specter it once was, yet it still casts a long and dark shadow over human consciousness and history, due to its extreme physical and emotional effects on polio victims and their...

Of all the diseases that humans have suffered throughout history, the biggest killer by far has been smallpox. It's believed that as many as half a billion people died from this disease in the twentieth century alone. Today, the disease no longer exists as a threat to civilization. Modern medicine has helped to wipe this disease off the face of the earth. It only exists frozen in laboratories. It is no longer a threat to daily life and the way we...

Twenty-five million people were killed as the Black Death spread across Europe. While this was the most notorious outbreak of the plague, it certainly wasn't the last. Even today, cases of the plague can occur. This book explores the types of disease, how it spread, the aftermath of an epidemic, and how all of these things shaped society and changed humanity.