Why did the first civilizations emerge when and where they did? How did Islam become a unifying force in the world of its birth? What enabled the West to project its goods and power around the world from the fifteenth century on? Why was agriculture invented seven times and the steam engine just once? World-historical questions such as these; the subjects of major works by Jared Diamond; David Landes; and others; are now of great moment as global frictions increase. In a spirited and original contribution to this quickening discussion; two renowned historians; father and son; explore the webs that have drawn humans together in patterns of interaction and exchange; cooperation and competition; since earliest times. Whether small or large; loose or dense; these webs have provided the medium for the movement of ideas; goods; power; and money within and across cultures; societies; and nations. From the thin; localized webs that characterized agricultural communities twelve thousand years ago; through the denser; more interactive metropolitan webs that surrounded ancient Sumer; Athens; and Timbuktu; to the electrified global web that today envelops virtually the entire world in a maelstrom of cooperation and competition; J. R. McNeill and William H. McNeill show human webs to be a key component of world history and a revealing framework of analysis. Avoiding any determinism; environmental or cultural; the McNeills give us a synthesizing picture of the big patterns of world history in a rich; open-ended; concise account.
#351519 in Books Allen Arthur 2015-07-06Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.30 x 1.00 x 5.50l; .0 #File Name: 0393351041400 pagesThe Fantastic Laboratory of Dr Weigl How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis
Review
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful. The depraved scientific politics of the NazisBy Paul GelmanThe Nazi ideology of "Geomedizin"-that illness was as irrefutable and inevitable result of culture- had a significance for the Jews and other peoples in Eastern Europe. The louse; carrier of typhus; was a symbol of the Jew :a filthy; parasitic; blood-sucking disease element which had penetrated the German nation long ago. If so; according to Julius Streicher; the infamous editor of 'Der Sturmer'; the Jew as a bacillus and a plague is not a human being but rather an enemy; a criminal and a disease carrier; thus he must be eliminated.In addtion; Hitler and his bunch of criminals were afraid that typhus might be a serious hindrance which could stay in the way of achieving their dream of mastering Europe. Because the disease plagued the Nazi troops in Eastern Europe; the Nazis were desperately looking for a solution.For this they turned toRudolf Weigl; the Polish scientist who had a world reputation thanks to the fact that it was he who succeeded in creating a vaccine which was effective against the disease.In February 1940; no less a figure than Nikita Khrushchev visited Weigl at his laboratory; offering him a job at the Soviet Academy of Medicine in Moscow. Weigl declined.After the departure of the Russians from Lwow in 1941; the city where Weigl was working in; the city became a "Hobbeian theater; every man for himself under a ruthless occupant; the Nazis.Typhus was rampant there; and Weigl even considered leaving the city; but eventually decided to stay.It is estimated that at least 3000 people were working for his institute; which became a tool of deceiving the Nazis and a shelter for many victims of the Nazis. The tens of millions of lice used in the vaccine during the war descended from a cross between lice gathered from the clothing of Russians in Austrian POW camps during WW1; and an Ethiopian variety that Weigl had obtained in Addis Ababa. Wegl employed doomed scientists;writers; doctors and others and thus saved their lives. In addition; he and his workers shipped ton of a weakened serum to the Wehrmacht.Among those saved was another scientist; the Jewish immunologist Ludwick Fleck; who was sent to Buchenwald. Fleck was forced to create and re-create a typhus vaccine under the direction of Erwin Ding; who was called "a Dummkopf who earned a dissertation only on the basis of his services for the party". Being so; Fleck and his colleagues produced two types of the vaccine: one that had no value and was perfectly harmless; and went to the front; and a second type; in very small quantities; that was efficatious and was used in special cases for the comrades who worked at Buchenwald.All this continued until March 1945.Weigl died in 1957 of a heart attack; while Fleck immigrated to Israel.The book is based on many new and untapped documents as well as many interviews with some relevant persons and is a good read;original and well written; although somehow in a dry language. All in all; I recommend it. very much.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A must readBy Camp RunamokWe always hear that disease kills more soldiers than bullets; and the king of battlefield diseases was typhus; passed along by body lice. Weigl was a Pole of German descent. Fleck was an imprisoned Jewish scientist. Both were working on vaccines for typhus. The book describes the work they did on vaccines for the Nazis; and how they risked their lives to save those interned in the Nazi Ghettos and camps - primarily Buchenwald and Auschwitz. And we learn how Fleck fooled the Nazis by producing a vaccine he knew did nothing; while at the same time making a real vaccine for laboratory workers and prisoners. As well; the experiments done by Weigl and Fleck initiated the post war discussion and codification of how human trials should be conducted. This book; as one would expect; is full of sharp edges. The descriptions of the camps and conditions; as well as the Nazi regime in general; are shocking; detailed; and graphic.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Truly Amazing bookBy EnglandI had sheilded myself my whole life from any more detail of the holocaust than I had to have; because it is so painful.This book allowed me to bear witness to the attitudes and events that led up to the holocaust in a way that made it bearable; even rewarding to know about.Typhus. Even though I'm a nurse; I had NO idea that this dramatic disease existed and was spread by human body lice!Hatred; fear inhumane policies that came from them literally exacerbated the occurance and spread of the very disease they were afraid of.It was revealing to read the attitudes and the rhetoric regarding Poles; Jews and Gypsies because they sound eerily familiar to today's anti-poor; anti-refugee anti-immigrant rhetoric.I learned about Ludwig Fleck who had a shrewed mind for how science works and was ahead of his time.There is irony that is not lost on me that a vaccine could have an effect on the outcome of a world war - both in terms of providing false vaccine to Nazi troops which failed to protect them from loss of lives; as well as providing real vaccines to those held captive in slums and camps (and to people who were tending to the sick in those areas). With today's anti-vaccine beliefs; this reality is a hard hitting example of what vaccines really do.It was hard at times to follow the stories in the book because it jumped around to talk about different people; and to some extent also jumped around in time; plus there are a lot of names! But it was not bad enough that I couldn't follow nor did it diminsh my appreciation for larger story being told.Truly Amazing book.
