A scientist sets out to interrogate the microorganisms responsible for some of the world's deadliest epidemics, revealing how the human body tries to fight off such invaders.

In this revelatory book, professor Jonathan Kennedy argues that the myth of human exceptionalism overstates the role that we play in social and political change. Instead, it is the humble microbe that wins wars and topples empires. Drawing on the latest research in fields ranging from genetics and anthropology to archeology and economics, Pathogenesis takes us through 60,000 years of history, exploring eight major outbreaks of infectious disease that...