| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Gerald N. Grob. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2002. Pp. x, 349. $35.00.
The deadly truth, Gerald N. Grob concludes in this aptly named book, is that disease will never be conquered completely. It is but a pleasant myth that medical science will ultimately uncover the causes and mechanisms of all the plagues of mankind. He argues that disease is a result of the environment in which we live—biological, natural, social, and economic—and, because the world is ever changing, there will always be threats to health. The recent outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which occurred after this book was published, underscores his thesis.	1
Grob looks at American history from the pre-Columbian period to the end of the twentieth century through the lens of disease. While the particulars of disease have changed and the human life span has lengthened, especially in the last fifty years, the underlying principle remains unchanged: disease mirrors the environment.	2
The pre-Columbians, sparsely settled on a vast continent and biologically isolated, were spared many of the "crowd" ailments like dysentery that plagued humans elsewhere. Yet they were by no means disease free, especially after they shifted from a hunting-gathering culture to agriculture and their diet became more limited. The arrival of Europeans with a variety of strange pathogens including influenza, smallpox, and measles proved catastrophic for Indian populations. In Florida, for example, the Amerindian population was reduced by ninety-five percent in the sixteenth century.	. . .

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