PATHOGENESIS: How Germs Made History, by Jonathan Kennedy (Torva, $40)
When Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prizewinning Guns, Germs, and Steel appeared in 1997, it changed the course of how history was written. It was no longer just the stage for kings and conquerors, or even social and economic advancement. Anthropology, evolutionary biology, genetics, linguistics and ecology also had a say.
Among Diamond's insights into how changes in food production and the domestication of animals influenced social and political organisation was the impact of infectious diseases. Although more recent research has challenged his assumptions, some elaborated in the subsequent Collapse, the emphasis on wider considerations has increased.
Peter Frankopan's The Earth Transformed - reviewed in these pages in March - reinterpreted the arc of human history through the lens of environmental and climatic change. An anthropologist and an archaeologist did the same in The Dawn of Everything, while historian Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens remains the gold standard for many readers.
These doorstopper books are not quick reading, due to the amount of knowledge they contain. But Jeremy Kennedy, a lecturer in global public health at Queen Mary University in London and a neophyte in this publishing field, lightens the task.
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Denne historien er fra June 3-9 2023-utgaven av New Zealand Listener.
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First-world problem
Harrowing tales of migrants attempting to enter the US highlight the political failure to fully tackle the problem.
Applying intelligence to AI
I call it the 'Terminator Effect', based on the premise that thinking machines took over the world.
Nazism rears its head
Smirky Höcke, with his penchant for waving with a suspiciously straight elbow and an open palm, won't get to be boss of either state.
Staying ahead of the game
Will the brave new world of bipartisanship that seems to be on offer with an Infrastructure Commission come to fruition?
Grasping the nettle
Broccoli is horrible. It smells, when being cooked, like cat pee.
Hangry? Eat breakfast
People who don't break their fast first thing in the morning report the least life satisfaction.
Chemical reaction
Nitrates in processed meats are well known to cause harm, but consumed from plant sources, their effect is quite different.
Me and my guitar
Australian guitarist Karin Schaupp sticks to the familiar for her Dunedin concerts.
Time is on my side
Age does not weary some of our much-loved musicians but what keeps them on the road?
The kids are not alright
Nuanced account details how China's blessed generation has been replaced by one consumed by fear and hopelessness.
