Pathogenesis

This book challenges some of the greatest cliches about colonialism and leaves you wondering why you ever gave them the time of day. A revelation, and also that rarest thing, a science title that is entirely comprehensible and often a pleasure to read.

Sathnam Sanghera, bestselling author of Empireland

Pathogenesis is superbly written. Kennedy seamlessly weaves together scientific and historical research, and his confident authorial voice is sure to please readers of Yuval Noah Harari or Rutger Bregman.

David Robson, The Times

Thrilling and eye-opening. From neolithic diseases to Covid-19, Jonathan Kennedy explores the enormous role played by some of the tiniest life on Earth: the power of plagues in shaping world history.

Professor Lewis Dartnell, bestselling author of Origins and Being Human

From the fall of Rome to the Spanish conquest of the Americas to the industrial revolution, germs have played as much a role in history as guns, generals and "great men"... Jonathan Kennedy restores the microbes of infectious disease to their rightful place in the story of human evolution and the rise and fall of civilisations. Science and history at its best.

Dr Mark Honigsbaum, author of The Pandemic Century

Kennedy's book, which aims to show how infectious disease has shaped us from the time of the Neanderthals to the era of Covid-19, is full of amazing facts... Pathogenesis doesn't only cover thousands of years of history - it seeks radically to alter the way the reader views many of the (often very well-known) events it describes.

Rachel Cooke, Observer

Professor Kennedy-drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archaeology and economics-explores eight major outbreaks of infectious disease across the entire history of civilization... It's not often you pick up a book that promises to alter your entire understanding of the story of humanity.

LitHub

An absorbing book... Kennedy's intertwined story of humanity and humongous disease is told lucidly and knowledgeably, with ample historical context.

Telegraph

How a virus might have written human history. This is a fascinating, readable, and superbly researched account of how infectious diseases have shaped our history, from the Palaeolithic Era to Covid.

Professor David Christian, bestselling author of Origin Story and Future Stories

Our very existence and success as a species, Kennedy argues in this fascinating book, has been shaped by bacteria and viruses.

Book of the Day, Guardian