Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

About this book

A witty irreverent tour of historys worst plaguesfrom the Antonine Plague to leprosy to polioand a celebration of the heroes who fought them In 1518 in a small town in Alsace Frau Troffea began dancing and didnt stop. She danced until she was carried away six days later and soon thirty-four more villagers joined her. Then more. In a month more than 400 people had been stricken by the mysterious dancing plague. In late-seventeenth-century England an eccentric gentleman founded the No Nose Club in his gracious townhomea social club for those who had lost their noses and other body parts to the plague of syphilis for which there was then no cure. And in turn-of-the-century New York an Irish cook caused two lethal outbreaks of typhoid fever a case that transformed her into the notorious Typhoid Mary. Throughout time humans have been terrified and fascinated by the diseases history and circumstance have dropped on them. Some of their responses to those outbreaks are almost too strange to believe in hindsight. Get Well Soon delivers the gruesome morbid details of some of the worst plagues weve suffered as a species as well as stories of the heroic figures who selflessly fought to ease the suffering of their fellow man. With her signature mix of in-depth research and storytelling and not a little dark humor Jennifer Wright explores historys most gripping and deadly outbreaks and ultimately looks at the surprising ways theyve shaped history and humanity for almost as long as anyone can remember.