A History of the World in Six Plagues

A History of the World in Six Plagues unveils a powerful and unsettling truth: epidemic diseases enter the world by chance, but they become catastrophic by human design. 'If everyone read Edna Bonhomme's incredible, humane, insightful book - and I hope they do - we might stand a chance' Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Immense World 'Poignant' Salon 'Could not be more urgent' The Baffler In this groundbreaking work, Bonhomme explores how six pivotal diseases - Cholera, HIV/AIDS, the Spanish Flu, Sleeping Sickness, Ebola and COVID-19 - have shaped the trajectory of human history. Through vivid storytelling and rigorous research, she reveals how pandemics have consistently widened the gaps in racial, economic and sociopolitical divides, from the slave ships of the Atlantic to today's fractured healthcare systems. How did a colonial obsession with sugar amplify the devastation of Cholera? Why did sleeping sickness become a weapon of empire in Tanzania? And how has COVID-19 magnified inequities in our modern, interconnected world? Bonhomme's incisive analysis transforms our understanding of public health, not as a neutral force but as a stage where power, policy and prejudice collide. Urgent and illuminating, A History of the World in Six Plagues is not just a history of disease, it is a call to reimagine a more equitable future in the face of ongoing global health challenges. 'Fascinating and thought-provoking' Jonathan Kennedy, author of Pathogenesis: How Germs Made History 'Tender as it tackles some of the most stigmatized subjects of our time' Morgan Jenkins, author of Wandering in Strange Lands

Edna Bonhomme is a critic, historian, and journalist. She is a co-editor of the book After Sex, and her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Frieze, the Guardian, the London Review of Books, and The Nation. She earned her PhD in history from Princeton University and has a master's in public health from Columbia University. Edna has received awards and fellowships from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Camargo Foundation, the Robert Silvers Foundation, and the Andy Warhol Foundation. She is a 2026 finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Nona Balakian Award. Edna lives in Berlin, Germany.