The Pandemic Century
A review of

The Pandemic Century

One Hundred Years of Panic, Hysteria, and Hubris

Mark Honigsbaum • W.W. Norton • 2019

Epidemics, Outbreaks and Pandemics

by David Meyer

Prolific medical historian Mark Honigsbaum provides a chilling, detailed overview of the human experience of pandemics, encompassing plague, flu, SARS and AIDS.

Medical historian Mark Honigsbaum, a lecturer at University College London, spent a decade researching modern plagues and pandemics, from the 1918 flu to AIDS and SARS. He believes more pandemics are coming. Honigsbaum’s thorough report predates the COVID-19 pandemic, though he pretty much predicts it.

Describing previous epidemics and pandemics, where and why they originated, how they spread, how and why governments and public health authorities responded to them, and what eventually contained them, Honigsbaum offers a road map to understanding and coping with COVID-19. He believes that the factor that makes a pandemic most dangerous is human ignorance; his historical account provides a powerful tool for those willing to be educated.

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