Simon Schama on how inoculation changed the world
HistoryExtra podcast
00:00
The Paradox of Progress
Cholera was pretty unknown in Europe until 1817 to very early in the 19th century. People were not prepared again and rather like the Atlantic Clay would be it was extremely swift. If you got it you died a horrible death. You basically lost all your bodily fluids very very quickly. And there is this paradox which runs all the way through the book that everything about progress that made Europe and the West feel buoyant and in control of their lives actually created conditions for a pathogen to flourish.
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