Hays (history, Loyola U. Chicago) describes, in a style accessible to high school students and up, the history of 50 epidemics in world history, from an unspecified disease that swept through Athens in 430-427 BC to a number of epidemics still plaguing the world today. Each chapter is organized into sections describing "when and where," historical significance, background, how it was understood at the time, responses, and unresolved historical issues. Each chapter also includes references and suggested additional readings. Also includes information on Aedes Aegypti, American Indians, antibiotics, Asia, asymptomatic carriers, bleeding, blood, burial considerations, children, China, contagion, diet, dysentery, economic circumstances, environmental considerations, fleas, flies, germ theory, will of gods, Waldemar Haffkine, humors, immunity, infants, inoculations, Islam, Edward Jenner, Robert Koch, laws, miasmas, microorganisms, migration, military affairs, morality, morbidity, mortality, mosquitoes, New York, pilgrimages, political impact, population levels, poverty, public health policies, quarantines, race, rehydration, religion, rodents, sanitation, slavery, social conditions, syphilis, trade considerations, transportation, rural areas, urban areas, vaccinations, venereal diseases, Vibrio cholerae, virgin soil infection, water contamination, women, World Health Organization, World War I, Yersinia pestis, etc.