Throughout history, epidemics have repeatedly posed a single, provocative question: ‘Organise or die – what will you do?’ This book explores how different societies have answered. In ten concise, good-humoured chapters, the philosopher Anders Fogh Jensen tells the story of epidemics and control from the 13th century to the present. The book places the coronavirus pandemic into a historical perspective. It illuminates a range of strategies used to combat epidemics and the thinking behind them, and shows how epidemics inspire and act as catalysts for the brave new normal.

 

"I swallowed the book whole in a single afternoon. It was like reading a thriller." – Hildur Nielsen