This book traces the history of epidemics in Western society from the ancient Greeks to the present day and persuasively argues that our anxieties about outbreaks of disease often stray from the facts to incorporate inflated fears about what is unknown, undesirable or misunderstood. Fear and imagination help drive the epidemic narrative as much as and, surprisingly, often more than fact. In his eye-opening account of the human predilection to imagine diseases as convenient explanations for deep-seated anxieties, Philip Alcabes offers a fascinating exploration of the social and cultural history of epidemics. Dread delivers a different story of disease - one that requires us to reexamine our choice of enemies and to carefully consider the potential for epidemic alarm bells to disguise moral or political crusades.

The sense of an epidemic -- Plague : birth of the model epidemic -- Cholera, poverty, and the politicized epidemic -- Germs, science, and the stranger -- The conquest of contagion -- Postmodern epidemics -- Managing the imagined epidemic.