TL;DR: A great overall summary of sickness and how it’s impacted humanity.
Source: NetGalley, thank you so much to the publisher!
Sources: This had quite a few interesting sources, a good length back section that would make for great additional reading.
Readability: I found myself flying through this, and everything was so interestingly presented.
Summary:
From alchemy to wellness culture, from antisemitism to disposable plastic, a gripping account of how getting sick has shaped humanity.
Anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-reason beliefs seem to be triumphing over common sense today. How did we get here? The Great Shadow brings a huge missing piece to this puzzle—the experience of actually being ill. What did it feel like to be a woman or man struggling with illness in ancient times, in the Middle Ages, in the seventeenth century, or in 1920? And how did that shape our thoughts and convictions?
The Great Shadow uses extensive historical research and first-person accounts to tell a vivid story about sickness and our responses to it, from very ancient times until the last decade. In the process of writing, historian Susan Wise Bauer reveals just how many of our current fads and causes are rooted in the moment-by-moment experience of sickness—from the search for a balanced lifestyle to plug-in air fresheners and bare hardwood floors. We can’t simply shout facts at people who refuse vaccinations, believe that immigrants carry diseases, or insist that God will look out for them during a pandemic. We have to enter with imagination, historical perspective, and empathy into their world. The Great Shadow does just that with page-turning flair.
Thoughts:
If you’ve read any medical history texts then you are going to be somewhat familiar with the path that medicine has taken over the years. This will still be a fantastic addition to your reading, as Susan Wise Bauer does a wonderful job of really showing us the impact of things like the various plagues and viruses we’ve faced in the past. If by chance this is your first medical history book – boy you’re in for a good time.
Possibly my favorite trick that our author pulls out is the setting up of narratives to parallel one another. For example she talks about her son getting Scarlet Fever and how a simple antibiotic took care of it. Yet before that existed another woman lost two sons, years apart to the same illness. It brings a note of relatability and realism to the scope to see how these would have actually effected individuals.
This is also well researched with footnotes and sources to keep you busy for days. I ate this up, was genuinely terrified at times and relieved at others (thank you modern science for a lot of great vaccines and antibodies). This is a fascinating and well drawn journey, I really recommend it for the curious.
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