A Pest In The Land: New World Epidemics In A Global Perspective (Diálogos Series)

A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective (Diálogos Series)

This study of disease among the native peoples of the New World before and after 1492 challenges many widely held notions about encounters between European and native peoples. Whereas many late twentieth century scholars blamed the catastrophic decline of postconquest native populations on the introduction of previously unknown infections from the Old World, Alchon argues that the experiences of native peoples in the New World closely resembled those of other human populations. Exposure to lethal new infections resulted in rates of morbidity and mortality among native Americans comparable to tose found among Old World populations.