Summary Of A Pest In The Land By Suzanne Austin Alchon

Repeatedly throughout human history, disease and illness epidemics have altered the timelines of many civilizations across our globe. Thousands of diseases have been progressively recorded over time, nonetheless many of them have been eradicated due to the evolution of medical advancements. In today’s modern society, new pathogens are continually being discovered, while a few remain persistent from the past. An extravagant amount of history surrounds epidemics, and its study can often lead to the explanation of human’s social actions during past times.
In Suzanne Austin Alchon’s book “A Pest in the Land”, she explains the history behind epidemics and how they’ve altered our globe’s past. Epidemics generally begin when foreign nations set out
This is precisely portrayed throughout history when outsiders arrive to native’s regions, their only astute decision available is to confront the newcomers. Reflecting on the Alchon’s book, while it contained many reoccurring diseases like Measles, and the Black Plague; Smallpox was notably the most prevalent throughout history, as “The disease flared into localized epidemics in 1648-1649, 1658, 1664-1666,1675 and 1689-1690 and continued to wreak havoc throughout the eighteenth century.” (99) Consequently, new-world humans were more prone to infection because their immune systems weren’t as resistant, this was due to their geographical isolation. And although it is noted by Spaniards “natives could explain the properties of medicinal plants by no other means” (Alchon 110) the native’s medical practices at the time were unaccustomed to Old-World pathogens; their medicine was nothing more than herbal remedies prescribed for “hot” or “cold”
Once the first wave of infection had struck our village, I immediately concluded the articles of clothing that were causing the infection. Using the patterns of the people picked out of our groups, I developed the theory that “black and grey” was what each person had in common. Unfortunately, my information was ignored as if it couldn’t possibly be the source. Although the rest of the group was open with their discussion, many of the smaller roles only supported the larger role’s such as the priest, nobles, or merchants. Since my voice wasn’t being heard, I decided to turn towards attempting to create chaos and havoc. Attempting to coordinate an uprising among the indigenous laborers, so we could collectively break out of quarantine to kill the nobles. Similar enough, this was comparable to the receptiveness of why European “Peasants and the urban poor often objected to quarantines and the destruction of their meager belongings, but in the end the local authorities prevailed.” (Alchon 30) It’s unfortunate that the indigenous laborers didn’t break out of quarantine in our simulation, it would have made things amusing. Hypothetically, if any outbreaks were to affect a larger population, without modern communication the outcome would not be favorable. Despite the world