Summary: Dread E-Book

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• Herausgeber: Political Book Summaries
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 21

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

The must-read summary of Philip Alcabes's book: “Dread: How fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu”.

This complete summary of "Dread" by Philip Alcabes presents his examination of epidemics and how they reflect the social and cultural anxieties of the time. He explores a variety of cases, from bird flu and the Black Death to widespread conditions such as autism and obesity.

Added-value of this summary:
• Save time
• Understand epidemics and how our culture influences how they are perceived
• Expand your knowledge of sociology and cultural impact

To learn more, read "Dread" and discover a way of looking at disease and epidemics that is free of the baggage we usually bring to public discourse.

Leseprobe

Book Presentation: Dread by Philip Alcabes

Book Abstract

The average individual is far more likely to die in a car accident than from a communicable disease, yet we are still much more fearful of epidemics. In Dread, Philip Alcabes argues that our anxieties about epidemics are created not so much by the germ or microbe in question – or the actual risks of contagion – but by the unknown, the undesirable, and the misunderstood. He examines epidemics throughout history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times. From Typhoid Mary to bioterrorism, as new outbreaks are unleashed or imagined, new fears surface, new enemies are born, and new behaviors emerge. Dread evaluates the imagined epidemic: the one that we think is happening (or might happen), the one that disguises moral judgments and political agendas, the one that ultimately expresses our deepest fears.

About the Author

Philip Alcabes is an associate professor of Urban Public Health at Hunter College of the City University of New York and visiting clinical associate professor at the Yale School of Nursing. He has written op-eds for the Washington Post and contributed essays to The American Scholar, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Virginia Quarterly Review.

Summary of Dread (Philip Alcabes)

Introduction

Epidemics – the Black Death of the Middle Ages, the Spanish Flu of 1918, or SARS in the 21st century – have always inspired dread. For much of human history such fears were warranted as plague, cholera, and other outbreaks claimed millions of lives. Today, however, deaths from epidemic diseases are much rarer in the developed world. Indeed, far more Americans will die from car accidents every year than from AIDS.

Medicine and technology have succeeded in making the developed world safer than ever. Paradoxically, however, “a veritable industry of fear has emerged, making the risk of disastrous disease seem ever present.” As a result, fears of possible pandemics are stoked by government officials, health professionals, and the media. These groups often have a vested interest in hyping threats.

Exploiting the public’s anxiety can generate profits, grant money, and enhance the power of government officials. Not surprisingly, Americans are constantly bombarded by alarmist headlines, but the fears produced rarely correspond to the facts.