In the spring of 2020, as a new and deadly virus rapidly spread across the globe, the world shut down. But a small country in Northern Europe remained open.First, its government instituted no restrictions. Then, it didn’t order the wearing of face masks. While the rest of the world looked on with incredulity, condemnation, admiration, and even envy, a small country in Northern Europe stood alone. As Covid-19 spread across the globe rapidly, the world shut down. But...

Read the devastating story of the Spanish flu - the twentieth century's greatest killer – and discover what it can teach us about the current Covid-19 pandemic.'Both a saga of tragedies and a detective story... Pale Rider is not just an excavation but a reimagining of the past' GuardianWith a death toll of between 50 and 100 million people and a global reach, the Spanish flu of 1918–1920 was the greatest human disaster, no...

The Sunday Times Bestseller'Tim Harford is one of my favourite writers in the world. His storytelling is gripping but never overdone, his intellectual honesty is rare and inspiring, and his ability to make complex things simple - but not simplistic - is exceptional. How to Make the World Add Up is another one of his gems. If you're looking for an addictive pageturner that will make you smarter, this is your book' Rutger Bregman, author of ...

A piercing and scientifically grounded look at the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic and how it will change the way we live—"excellent and timely." (The New Yorker)Apollo's Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous (yet dimly remembered) historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutt...

A look at the 1918 influenza pandemic from its outbreak to its effects on the global population and its legacy.On the second Monday of March, 1918, the world changed forever. What seemed like a harmless cold morphed into a global pandemic that would wipe out as many as a hundred-million people—ten times as many as the Great War. German troops faltered, lending the allies the winning advantage, and India turned its sights to independence while South Africa turned to ...

'Magisterial ... Immensely readable' Douglas Alexander, Financial Times'Insightful, productively provocative and downright brilliant' New York TimesA compelling history of catastrophes and their consequences, from 'the most brilliant British historian of his generation' (The Times)Disasters are inherently hard to predict. But when catastrophe strikes, we ought to be better prepared than th...

The story of a microbiologist’s remarkable career, from identifying ?the Ebola virus to pioneering AIDS research and policy.When Peter Piot was in medical school, a professor warned, “There’s no future in infectious diseases. They’ve all been solved.” Fortunately, Piot ignored him, and the result has been an exceptional, adventure-filled career. In the 1970s, as a young man, Piot was sent to Central Africa as part of a team tasked with identifying a grisly new virus. Crossing into ...

Health issues have long occupied top headlines in Canadian media, and no journalist has written on public health with more authority or for as many years as André Picard. Matters of Life and Death collects Picard's most compelling columns, covering a broad range of topics including Canada's right-to-die law, the true risks of the Zika virus, the financial challenges of a publicly funded health system, appalling health conditions in First Nations communities, the legalization of ma...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE PRIZE 2022SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEARA GUARDIAN BEST POLITICS BOOK OF THE YEARA TOP 5 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*Revised and updated edition with new chapter reflecting on the impact of Covid-19 two years on, and what come next*Did the UK government...

In this "meticulously researched" account (New York Times Book Review), a Pulitzer Prize-winning author examines the dangers of a failing public health system unequipped to handle large-scale global risks like a coronavirus pandemic.The New York Times bestselling author of The Coming Plague, Laurie Garrett takes on perhaps the most crucial global issue of our time in this eye-opening book. She asks: is our collective health in a state of ...

The moving, playful memoir of Hans Rosling, Swedish statistics mastermind, researcher extraordinaire and author of the global bestseller, Factfulness, with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling RönnlundThis is a book that contains very few numbers. Instead, it is about meeting people who have opened my eyes.It was facts that helped him explain how the world works. But it was curiosity and commitment that made the late Hans Rosling, author of the be...

**LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 PEN/JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION****LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDALS FOR EXCELLENCE****WINNER OF THE 2022 POZ AWARD FOR BEST IN LITERATURE*****Sarah Schulman named The Viral Underclass one of the Best Books of the 21st Century for the New York Times*"An irresistibly readable and humane exploration of the barbarities of class...readers are...