Table of Contents
Germs, Genes, & Civilization: How Epidemics Shaped Who We Are Today
Preface: xiii
Chapter 1: Introduction: our debt to disease 1
Chapter 2: Where did our diseases come from? 13
Chapter 3: Transmission, overcrowding, and virulence 33
Chapter 4: Water, sewers, and empires 67
Chapter 5: Meat and vegetables 93
Chapter 6: Pestilence and warfare 115
Chapter 7: Venereal disease and sexual behavior 141
Chapter 8: Religion and tradition: health below or heaven above? 163
Chapter 9: Manpower and slavery 193
Chapter 10: Urbanization and democracy 213
Chapter 11: Emerging diseases and the future 231
Further reading: 257
Index: 261
Allies and Enemies: How the World Depends on Bacteria
Acknowledgments: viii
About the Author: ix
Introduction: 1
Chapter 1: Why the world needs bacteria 7
Chapter 2: Bacteria in history 35
Chapter 3: “Humans defeat germs!”(but not for long) 63
Chapter 4: Bacteria in popular culture 83
Chapter 5: An entire industry from a single cell 99
Chapter 6: The invisible universe 121
Chapter 7: Climate, bacteria, and a barrel of oil 145
Epilogue: How microbiologists grow bacteria 165
Appendix: Resources for learning more about bacteria 173
Index: 197
It Takes a Genome: How a Clash Between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making Us Sick
Preface: How a genetic culture clash with modern life is making us sick ix
Chapter 1: The adolescent genome 1
Chapter 2: Breast cancer’s broken genes 19
Chapter 3: Not so thrifty diabetes genes 41
Chapter 4: Unhealthy hygiene 65
Chapter 5: Genetic AIDS 85
Chapter 6: Generating depression 99
Chapter 7: The alzheimer’s generation 121
Chapter 8: Genetic normality 135
Endnotes: 151
About the author: 175
Index: 177
