Get Well Soon
By Jennifer Wright
History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them. Henry Holt and Company, 2017.
Summary of Get Well Soon book by Jennifer Wright
An illuminating examination of the infamous epidemics that plagued people across the world and throughout time, from their most likely origins to the deaths they caused, as well as the people who worked on treatments and prevention.
Chapters in Get Well Soon book summary
What do you get from this book? An account of some of history’s worst plagues and the lives they impacted
The Antonine plague killed millions and felled Rome, despite Marcus Aurelius’s best efforts to keep his city strong
The bubonic plague resulted in heavy death tolls and city-wide breakdowns, but plague doctors and Nostradamus continued seeking cures
What may have been a case of mass hysteria was a plague that brought people together, rather than driving them apart
Smallpox destroyed the Aztec and Incan empires, though later vaccines were able to save Europeans
Fifteenth century Europe saw the spread of syphilis disfiguring many people who were treated cruelly by society
Glamorized by writers and the elite, tuberculosis was actually turned into a fashionable illness
Cholera was distributed throughout London due to fecal-lined water until John Snow recognized the issue and ended it
Leprosy was so debilitating that a colony was created to isolate the sufferers; only Father Damien dared interact with lepers
Typhoid fever was contracted by several elites in the early 1900s when their cook spread the bacteria
The Spanish Flu killed millions but reporters were forbidden from talking about it, making it easier to spread
Encephalitis lethargica is a mysterious disease resulting in severe personality changes, though Parkinson’s drugs provide temporary relief
Lobotomies were a manmade pandemic that beset hospitals and mentally ill patients in the mid-twentieth century
Polio causes paralysis but thanks to FDR’s research foundation, a vaccine was created, eliminating the disease
Summary of the key insights
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Get Well Soon — Book Summary Snapshot
Who should read Get Well Soon book
- Disease historians
- microbiologists
- medical researchers
- anyone interested in history or public health
About the author of Get Well Soon
Jennifer Wright
Jennifer Wright is a pop history author and journalist. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Cosmopolitan. She has written several books and served as the political editor-at-large for Harper’s Bazaar. In addition to print, she has appeared on popular television shows such as Mysteries at the Museum.
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