The tongue in cheek title of this book highlights the irony that while we largely celebrate science for pushing back against the biota and parasites that plague us, told from the bug’s view history is a series of evolutionary victories with some minor setbacks. So far,

Bugs 1, Homo sapiens 0.005

We are really at the beginning of understanding the genetic evolution of human, animal, and plant parasites at the same as science continues to fight against evolution, or in some cases, re-engineer it.

The story from the human perspective is unsettling. This book has beautiful illustrations of some of the weirdest and most unpleasant flies and bugs you’d ever want to see up close. It also has very plainly funny if gruesome descriptions of human hygiene prior to 1700.

More sobering is the history of human migration and conquest and it’s impact both on aboriginal populations and on the invaders themselves. Indeed, European conquistadors brought yellow fever and smallpox to the New World. But as Napoleon’s armies in the Caribbean found out, malaria made fighting there impossible and deadly.

Europeans simply weren’t made to thrive in the sub-Tropics. Waves upon waves of English overlords found the beautiful island of Jamaica a death trap. That is what made the importation of slaves from Africa all the more inviting: nobody else could live in those conditions and bring in the harvest of cane sugar.

Mitigation of the impact of deadly protozoa, bacteria, worms, and viruses came with the globalization of science.

The irony abounds.

The very same trends globalize previously regional epidemics and created pandemics. The spread of knowledge. International travel. Not just war for winnings brought us to our present stalemate with the bugs.

I learned to my chagrin that the greatest threat to chimpanzees in Africa are the very scientists who study them. One man sneezes and a community of chimpanzees drops dead. That’s a little simplistic but you get the idea.

Today we humans are the super pest. Since the beginnings of our bioengineering (including the early agricultural communities of the Fertile Crescent) we have been providing incentives for the bugs to adapt to our favourite breeds. And adaptation is pervasive amongst millions if not billions of bacteria and viruses.

The speed of our travel today “super-charged the diffusion of farm pests.” We really help evolution rock and roll. George Washington, for instance, was responsible for importing Tunisian sheep and their viruses, the source of swine flu in America. Meaning: you can’t put all the blame on Monsanto.

Bird flu, swine flu, rusts, and fungi. As with plant diseases human advancements created negative feedback to animal health as well. The feedback included government action and scientific innovation. Commercial agriculture and the transportation revolution represented human adaptations.

Rinderpest completely altered the lifestyle of African Masai. Horse flu in the 1870’s in the U.S. and Canada likely spurred innovation leading to the dominance of the horseless carriage.

Let’s face it: industrial scale agriculture creates the evolutionary breeding grounds for pathogens. Is there a real way to beat back this trend?

Not in my lifetime.

By 1900 there were 400 million cattle in the world, and America’s subsequent success with beef produced new pathogens. I’m thinking the global flu epidemic of 1919 that killed tens of millions after American soldiers brought the flu to the killing fields of Europe.

And today there are probably more chickens on the planet that humans. ( )

Kyle Harper's "Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" is a long read at over 500 pages, not including all the endnotes. The book purports to cover all the diseases known throughout the history of humankind. It is a summary of current investigative research. Considering the vast scope of the topic, Harper does the best anyone can.

There is not a lot of complicated biology or chemistry here, but the author occasionally bogs the lay reader like me down with some difficult genetic concepts. Nevertheless, he tries to keep the narrative moving in a more or less chronological manner, beginning with proto-human hominids and the agricultural revolution before getting into recorded history.

The vast majority of the book focuses on diseases that have impacted the Western world: various plagues of Roman times, the bubonic plague, cholera, and so on. There is scant information relating to pre-colonial America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. There are mentions here and there, but I suppose Harper did not have access to such sources because of language and research barriers.

"Plagues upon the Earth" has an extensive index, works cited, and further reading sections. ( )