A History of the World in Six Plagues

How Contagion, Class, and Captivity Shaped Us, from Cholera to Covid-19

By: Edna Bonhomme

Narrated by: Veronique Olin

An “incredible, humane, insightful” (Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize winner) account of humankind’s battles with epidemic disease, and their outsized role in deepening inequality along racial, ethnic, class, and gender lines—in the vein ofMedical ApartheidandKilling the Black Body.

With clear-eyed research and lush prose, A History of the World in Six Plagues is “a breathtaking journey through the intertwined histories of contagions and systemic inequities that have shaped our history” (Uché Blackstock, New York Times bestselling author).

Princeton-trained historian Edna Bonhomme’s examination of humanity’s disastrous treatment of pandemic disease takes us across place and time from Port-au-Prince to Tanzania, and from plantation-era America to our modern COVID-19-scarred world to unravel shocking truths about the patterns of discrimination in the face of disease. Also a rising call to action, this “tour de force…will change the way people think about public health and histories of medicine” (Dr. Tiffany N. Florvil, author of Mobilizing Black Germany).

Coherent story of disease and systems of privilege

This is information everyone would benefit from reading. It’s interesting and eye-opening. While I somewhat agree with a reviewer who was put off by the narrator, I don’t think it’s a deal/breaker because the story itself was fairly told and really important to hear. I wish everyone would read/hear it!

Why all the fake accents?

The book is somewhat interesting, though at times it is much more of an autobiography than a look at global health issues. However, the speaker’s obsession with taking on voices, phony accents, and affects when reading quotes is beyond annoying. It also feels like a rough first take that was not edited or re-recorded when the pause is in the wrong point in the sentence or a word is mispronounced. I stopped listening repeatedly because it got on my nerves!

Good story wrecked by silly language and a terrible narrator

This is an author who never met a pomo term that she doesn't like. This theoretical jargon skews the narrative toward boring abstractions. The narrator uses 'voices" that are unnecessary and distracting.