Over the last several years I have enjoyed a literature survey of the major infectious diseases. These diseases are intricately related to the history of politics, nations, wars, migrations, and culture. I have talked about them with many of my friends, and several of them requested that I compile a bibliography so here it is. Enjoy.
Tuberculosis
- Captain of Death: The Story of Tuberculosis.
- Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure.
- The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis.
- The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society.
- Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World.
- The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society.
- Saving Sickly Children: The Tuberculosis Preventorium in American Life, 1909–1970.
Smallpox
- Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox.
- Smallpox–The Death of a Disease: The Inside Story of Eradicating a Worldwide Killer.
- Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82.
- The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History.
Polio
- Polio: An American Story.
- The Polio Years in Texas: Battling a Terrifying Unknown.
Influenza
- The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History.
- Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It.
- American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic.
Cholera
- The Ghost Map.
- The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866.
- The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera.
- The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866.
Malaria
- The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years.
- Quinine: Malaria and the Quest for a Cure That Changed the World.
- The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria.
Typhus
- Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public’s Health.
Yellow Fever
- Bring Out Your Dead: The Great Plague Of Yellow Fever In Philadelphia In 1793.
- The American Plague.
Plague
- The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time.
- The Great Plague: The Story of London’s Most Deadly Year.
- The Black Death and the Transformation of the West.
HIV/AIDS
- And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic.
- The Epidemic: A Global History of AIDS.
- AIDS at 30: A History.
Antibiotics
- The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor’s Heroic Search for the World’s First Miracle Drug.
Yersinia pestis
- Justinian’s Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire.
Anthrax
- Death in a small Package.
General Medicine
- The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity.
- Henderson’s Equation by Jerome Lowenstein.
- The Legacy of Tracy J. Putnam and H. Houston Merritt: Modern Neurology in the United States by Lewis P. Rowland.
- Joseph Babinski: A Biography by Jacques Philippon and Jacques Poirier.
- The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution by Margaret Marsh and Wanda Ronner.
- Triumph of the Heart: The Story of Statins by Jie Jack Li.
- Dropsy, Dialysis, Transplant: A Short History of Failing Kidneys.
Surgery
- Deliver Me from Pain: Anesthesia and Birth in America by Jacqueline H. Wolf.
Toxicology
- The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison.
- The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.
- Molecules of Murder: Criminal Molecules and Classic Cases.
- The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus.
- The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements.
Contribute your thoughts.