"Diseases such as smallpox were hugely contagious and apocalyptically terrifying"

For centuries, scientists have striven to combat a whole host of infectious diseases. Yet, as Simon Schama explains in his new book, they have often met with considerable opposition

- MATT ELTON

Matt Elton You write in your new book that you are acutely conscious of being a newcomer to medical and scientific history. What drew you to this subject?

Simon Schama It won’t surprise anybody to learn that the pandemic played a large role. I thought: if there’s a moment when nationalism needs to be set aside for the common good, it’s now, when people need to share vaccines. I was quickly disabused, of course, by nations leapfrogging over each other to secure supplies of vaccines in advance.

But that disappointing moment led me, via the World Health Organization’s website, to the International Sanitary Conferences held from the mid-19th century, which were the first example of international organisation outside religious institutions, military alliances or peace conferences. This, suddenly, felt very much like the right subject for a book. My wife is a biologist, so I asked her: “Is this ridiculous? Will I perish with a terminal case of imposter syndrome?” But she encouraged me. I think something happens when you’re a really old geezer, too: you either want to escape completely into a hobby – Byzantine coinage in the 11th century, perhaps – or, if you’re like me, you only want to do history with an immediate link to what’s happening right now.

The first section of your book focuses on the fight against smallpox. How disruptive was that disease at its peak in Europe?

It was extraordinarily contagious and apocalyptically terrifying. It ran amok in crowded urban environments, killing as many as one in three people who contracted it. Plague had been even more frightening in the late Middle Ages and 17th century, but had somewhat retreated by the early 18th century, so people had been lulled into a false sense of security.