The Great Shadow by Susan Wise Bauer Book Review

About the Book:

Anti-science, anti-vaccine, anti-reason beliefs seem to be triumphing over common sense today. How did we get here? The Great Shadow brings a huge missing piece to this puzzle―the experience of actually being ill. What did it feel like to be a woman or man struggling with illness in ancient times, in the Middle Ages, in the seventeenth century, or in 1920? And how did that shape our thoughts and convictions?

The Great Shadow uses extensive historical research and first-person accounts to tell a vivid story about sickness and our responses to it, from very ancient times until the last decade. In the process of writing, historian Susan Wise Bauer reveals just how many of our current fads and causes are rooted in the moment-by-moment experience of sickness―from the search for a balanced lifestyle to plug-in air fresheners and bare hardwood floors. We can’t simply shout facts at people who refuse vaccinations, believe that immigrants carry diseases, or insist that God will look out for them during a pandemic. We have to enter with imagination, historical perspective, and empathy into their world. The Great Shadow does just that with page-turning flair.

My Review:

We may forget the hundreds of years it took to have the understanding of disease and medicine we now enjoy. Bauer takes us on an informative journey of experience and attempted cures, such as religious attempts to explain death and attempts to appease the gods. Assuming the cause was external, attempts were made to drive the cause away. Eventually a cause was sought inside the person, such as with epilepsy. She draws from a variety of sources, sometimes including personal accounts. There are many interesting and informational stories, like the development of the word disease, from dis-ease. Another section relates the troubled development of inoculation. What a breakthrough to finally understand the reality of germs.

This is a very readable exploration of how disease was understood and has been treated over the centuries. Thank goodness we have scientific investigation now rather than mere speculation or superstition.

My rating: 4/5 stars.

About the Author:

Susan Wise Bauer is a historian and educator. Her sweeping works of narrative history include, among many others, The History of the Ancient World, The Story of Western Science, and the Story of the World series for young readers. She is the co-author of The Well-Trained Mind, author of The Well-Educated Mind, and owner of the Well-Trained Mind Press. She taught at the College of William and Mary for eighteen years and now writes on the family farm, Peace Hill, in Charles City, Virginia. Photo Credit: Kelly J. Mihalcoe

St Martin's Press, 352 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)