A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN SIX PLAGUES
On Sale 11 March 2025
“A searing attack on historical injustices." -Kirkus Review
“Bonhomme’s frank, timely critique of the Western medical field and our faltering health care system reveals how it is deeply entangled with colonialism and capitalism.”
—BookPage (starred review)
Named one of the most anticipated microhistories in 2025 by Scientific American and best nonfiction by Bookbub.
A deeply reported, insightful, and literary account of humankind’s battles with epidemic disease, and their outsized role in deepening inequality.
A History of the World in Six Plagues explores the deep connection between contagion and confinement through six diseases and six case studies: cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, sleeping sickness, Ebola, and COVID-19. The book examines humanity’s approach to pandemic diseases, taking readers on a journey across different places and times, from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania and from plantation-era America to today’s COVID-19-affected world. This is a vivid account of how we can be more humane.
“Pandemics thrive on inequities and widen them, providing more kindling for future plagues. This simple lesson has proven devastatingly difficult to learn. But I think that if everyone read Edna Bonhomme’s incredible, humane, insightful book--and I hope they do--we might stand a chance of actually breaking the cycle of neglect and panic.”
—Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the New York Times bestsellers I Contain Multitudes and An Immense World
“A breathtaking journey through the intertwined histories of contagions and systemic inequities that have shaped our history. Poignantly insightful and compelling, Bonhomme not only sheds light on past injustices but challenges us to confront our history and envision a more compassionate future.”
—Uché Blackstock, New York Times bestselling author of Legacy
“This meticulously researched book shows us the ways that contagious illness frustrates humankind's instinct for control, and how people have found ways to care for one another in the worst of circumstances. A powerful book that shines a light on the parts of life we'd rather ignore, and the beauty that can arise from horror.”
—Sarah Jaffe, author of From the Ashes: Grief and Revolution
“Edna Bonhomme narrates centuries of the human-microbial dance, laying out how our destinies, liberties, and values are determined by how humans negotiate life on earth with our smallest living neighbors. Brilliant, tender and illuminating.”
—Steven W. Thrasher, PhD, author of the award-winning book The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide
“An expansive portraiture of how colonialism and confinement have influenced our understanding of illness and humanity. Thankfully, due to the author's talent and sheer strength in combining personal narrative with history, this book is also tender as it tackles some of the most stigmatized subjects of our time.”
—Morgan Jerkins, New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing
“This book is a tour de force! A brilliant and beautifully written account of the contours of contagion, health, race, gender, confinement, class, and space across multiple centuries and geohistories. A History of the World in Six Plagues will change how people think about public health and histories of medicine.”
—Dr. Tiffany N. Florvil, Associate Professor of History at The University of New Mexico and author of Mobilizing Black Germany
“Equal parts intimate portrait of illness and piercing analysis of our socio-political predicament. From empires to modern states, no civilization escapes the consequences of a plague. Let this book be a guide for our pandemic past, present, and probable--but by no means inescapable--future.”
—George Aumoithe, Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University