Many of us were raised with a rather triumphalist account detailing the rise of modern vaccines: for untold generations, people suffered terribly from various illnesses, and over time scientists and doctors figured out how to vaccinate people to reduce disease intensity and mortality. This has been hailed as an unalloyed good, and we invest a lot of time and resources into attempting to develop even more vaccines to address even more illnesses.

For those maintaining such a perspective, the recent anti-vax movement seems as if it came from left field. The resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine seems baffling.

Yet, as Simon Schama well documents in Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations, there has been resistance and challenges as long as the concept of inoculation/vaccination has been around. Most of that resistance and challenge said more about the resisters than anything about the advancement of science and the welfare of mankind.

The author first explored the promotion of “inoculation” for smallpox in the early eighteenth century. He well demonstrated how many had died and been permanently scarred by smallpox. He detailed how on the periphery of “civilization,” west and east, some women had come to realize the power and value of inoculation, and would inoculate their children. Some came across it, saw its effectiveness, and promoted it themselves. It eventually reached the royal household.

And then there were those who resisted it. It was asked how giving the plague could save from the plague. Theological arguments were marshaled: who were these inoculators to stand in God’s place and render His power of judging by smallpox moot? And, of course, the sheer bigotry: it was done in poorer and “less civilized” regions, and so how could it have value in a later time?

Then the author explored the life and career of Waldemar Haffkine, a Jewish man from Odessa who would play a major role in developing inoculation for both cholera and bubonic plague at the end of the 19th and into the 20th centuries. The author profiles his origin and development, how he ended up in India, and the constant resistance Haffkine would experience at the hands of the medical establishment which was very much ensconced in the mentality sanitation would work better than inoculation. Even as the evidence multiplied, the establishment would find reasons to cast aspersions. When they could make a case against the vaccines, they would, and sunk Haffkine’s reputation for a season. The establishment worked hard to break him.

In the end, we celebrate the development of inoculation against smallpox, and the vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague, finally ending all of their reigns of terror over humanity. And it is right we do so, and understandable why we don’t learn as much about all those who worked against them. One of history’s judgments involves being forgotten, after all.

But when we forget, we become surprised when we see the same kinds of resistance rise up again in later times. Books like these are important to tell the story of how inoculations and vaccines developed. Those who worked to do so should be celebrated. But it is also good to see how much resistance they experienced, from whom, and why, and thus be prepared to see such kinds of resistance continue to manifest themselves even in our own day.

Schama provides yet another well researched and written work for historical scholarship bringing to light the often unintended influences of disease and biological invaders on history.

Simon Schama set out to write a different book and then his experience with lyme disease and the Covid-19 pandemic took him down a new path - and indeed a very interesting journey through history. From Voltaire to others who either were taken ill by a pandemic or by those who were alone in speaking out about possible remedies for the pandemics, this book covers a lot of ground. It is amazing and a bit depressing about how little changes when nations face pandemics -- the misunderstanding and the misinformation that creates its own pandemic in a sense. There are many unsung heroes in this book - who were ostracized, demonized, or even killed for speaking truth. This is not just a book about pandemics but also about human nature in the face of crisis. This is a long read but by reading one chapter at a time, there was a lot of rich information to be gained.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ecco for an ARC and I voluntarily left this review.

This is a history of vaccines and viruses, which puts the current vaccine denialism in context. It’s as it always was: some people would rather think magically than logically. I suppose that reading the book could lead to an understanding that we shouldn’t hope for better from our fellow people. The last chapter was particularly effective.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Ecco for an advanced copy on this history and look at the people and events around a series of pandemics, how government and the public responded, and how blame was assigned to those who tried to help others.

History has been very busy recently. Many historians who have only been able to look at events through other books, news articles and journal entires are getting a good look at what many used to write about. Coup attempts in the Capital, Pandemics, strikes, riots, anti-Semitism, hate towards the LGBT community. For all those people who wish for the old days, well here we are. This modern look makes looking back events different. Where one can't imagine how something could happen the way it did, one only has to look at Twitter and see it happening in real time. Soon the wildfires from Canada will be competing with the book burnings from Southern states in setting off Air Quality alerts. Which is what Simon Schama in his book Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines, and the Health of Nations discusses and looks at. Paranoia at vaccines, accusations about profiting from cures, fear of masks and needles. Political points being gained by attacking the medical community. Add in some racism, and it is hard to say what ear Schama is discussing.

The book begins with the fact that nature was as confused as we were about the Pandemic. That nature was reacting in ways that seemed different than they should, just like in many ways we were. Schama looks at various diseases, how many started from natural cures, natural cures that really did nothing more than spread illness between people, like SARS, and how governments reacted, some by doing nothing, some by overreacting. Schama than discusses the role of people and governments fighting outbreaks starting about the end of the 19th century with a disease that was killing many people cholera. Schma spends time looking at the lives of individuals who were caught up in either fighting disease or living with illness, and uses their lives and experiences to show the broader story. Another very large aspect of the story is the racism that many felt was the root of a lot of these illnesses, and why should one country, say Britain, help a colony like India be healthy, when most of the diseases were there fault anyway.

Schama as a historian is interested in the story of humans, rather than the big events. Schama has a gift for finding people not only of interest, but people who have been ignored by history, and tells their story while illuminating what is going on around them. In this book there are many. Schama is gifted at showing and telling, not lecturing and the book is incredibly readable and interesting. There is a certain too soon aspect to the story, I will admit that. And a lot of déjà vu as reading about the attacks on people, companies, governments, and many of the racist statements.

I would like to say this is a hopeful tale, that we learned from our mistakes, but unfortunately it looks that we have not. I fear that we are in for very interesting times, a comment that can be taken as a blessing or a curse. A very different view of pandemics and reactions. I suggest reading this with The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, about dealing with a cholera outbreak in London. The difference in science, and public perception as shown through this book and Johnson's is pretty huge.

DNF. The content is really interesting, but the writing style and organization makes it really difficult to read. The chapters are really long and feel endless, and the covid information from the first chapter will be outdated soon. Just not the book for me.

I very much want to read this book but didn't realize that it wasn't available on kindle (as most books are I've stopped checking at the bottom first). I am unable to read on backlit screens so can't make use of the epub. I will keep checking in hopes that netgalley offers a kindle version soon!