Audio only
Length16h 15m
About this audiobook
A vibrant cultural history investigating pandemics and vaccines, by bestselling author and historian Simon Schama
Cities and countries engulfed by panic and death, desperate for vaccines but fearful of what inoculation may bring. This is what the world has just gone through with Covid-19. But as Simon Schama shows in his epic history of vulnerable humanity caught between the terror of contagion and the ingenuity of science, it has happened before.
Characteristically, Schama’s message is delivered through gripping, page-turning stories set in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: smallpox strikes London; cholera hits Paris; plague comes to India. Threading through the scenes of terror, suffering and hope – in hospitals and prisons, palaces, and slums – are an unforgettable cast of characters: a philosopher-playwright burning up with smallpox in a country chateau; a vaccinating doctor paying house calls in Halifax; a woman doctor in south India driving her inoculator-carriage through the stricken streets as dead monkeys drop from the trees. But we are also in the labs when great, life-saving breakthroughs happen, in Paris, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.
At the heart of it all is an unsung hero: Waldemar Haffkine, a gun-toting Jewish student in Odesa turned microbiologist at the Pasteur Institute, hailed in England as “the saviour of mankind” for vaccinating millions against cholera and bubonic plague in British India while being cold-shouldered by the medical establishment of the Raj. Creator of the world’s first mass production line of vaccines in Mumbai, he is tragically brought down in an act of shocking injustice.
Foreign Bodies crosses borders between east and west, Asia and Europe, the worlds of rich and poor, politics and science. Its thrilling story carries with it the credo of its author on the interconnectedness of humanity and nature; of the powerful and the people. Ultimately, Schama says, as we face the challenges of our times together, “there are no foreigners, only familiars.”
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.9 (751)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon, StoryGraph, LibraryThing
GenreHistory, Science and Nature, Health and Wellness
Length16 hrs 15 mins
Narrated bySimon Schama
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateSep 19, 2023
LanguageEnglish
More from Simon Schama
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
Ghosts of HiroshimaCharles Pellegrino8h 59m4.5 (877)$23
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789 (Annotated)Alexis de Tocqueville17h 25m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
All the Gallant MenDonald Stratton, Ken Gire5h 55m4.6 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Medgar and MyrlieJoy-Ann Reid10h 52m4.5 (27.8K)$29 · $0.00
The History of the Peloponnesian War (Annotated)Thucydides24h 3m4.6 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Where the Birds Never SingJack Sacco10h 31m4.6 (3.8K)$29 · $0.00
Serviceman J: The Untold Story of an NZSAS SoldierJamie Pennell5h 51m4.6 (452)$24 · $0.00
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Story of BirdsSteve Brusatte11h 49m4.6 (401)$29 · $0.00
How Stella Learned to TalkChristina Hunger7h4.5 (10.9K)$24 · $0.00
Craig & FredCraig Grossi8h 6m4.5 (9.6K)$26 · $0.00
Celebrating BirdsNatalia Rojas, Ana Maria Martinez6h 47m4.6 (330)$24 · $0.00
Saving JemimaJulie Zickefoose4h 59m4.5 (749)$20 · $0.00
Will's Red CoatTom Ryan8h 23m4.5 (2.3K)$26 · $0.00
Of Time and TurtlesSy Montgomery10h 34m4.5 (5K)$29 · $0.00
Zen and the Art of Saving the PlanetThich Nhat Hanh9h 20m4.5 (3.9K)$29 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
IngrainedCallum Robinson8h 10m4.5 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00
The Lion Tracker's Guide To LifeBoyd Varty3h 1m4.4 (4.8K)$18 · $0.00
Born for LoveBruce D. Perry, Maia Szalavitz11h 42m4.4 (4K)$29 · $0.00
The Mountains of California (With Original Drawings & Photographs) (Annotated)John Muir11h 35m4.5 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
The New GuysMeredith Bagby16h 50m4.4 (1.2K)$40 · $0.00
Blue PasturesMary Oliver3h 23m4.4 (3.8K)$18 · $0.00
The Rise and Reign of the MammalsSteve Brusatte13h 26m4.4 (11.1K)$33 · $0.00
VaccinatedPaul A. Offit8h 30m4.4 (3.7K)$26 · $0.00
The Light EatersZoë Schlanger10h 57m4.4 (22.8K)$29 · $0.00
Where the Lost Dogs GoSusannah Charleson11h 7m4.5 (699)$23 · $0.00
How to Make Disease DisappearRangan Chatterjee5h 26m4.5 (3.5K)$24 · $0.00
The Complete Herbal (Annotated)Nicholas Culpeper29h 8m4.5 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
A Plague Upon Our HouseScott W. Atlas MD10h 37m4.5 (3.4K)$20 · $0.00
The Cancer CodeDr. Jason Fung10h 48m4.5 (5.3K)$29 · $0.00
The Gift of TherapyIrvin Yalom7h 39m4.5 (38.8K)$26 · $0.00
EarlySarah DiGregorio9h 47m4.5 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00
Bottle of LiesKatherine Eban14h 25m4.4 (12K)$33 · $0.00
The 36-Hour DayNancy L. Mace, Peter V. Rabins17h 13m4.4 (9.2K)$28 · $0.00
FlooredSara Reardon10h 36m4.5 (1K)$29 · $0.00
Radical RemissionKelly A. Turner9h 26m4.4 (8.1K)$29 · $0.00
The Sinatra SolutionStephen T. Sinatra MD9h4.5 (899)$20 · $0.00
The Songaminute ManSimon McDermott6h 12m4.5 (280)$24 · $0.00
Sometimes BrilliantLarry Brilliant12h 27m4.5 (954)$29 · $0.00
Live Your LifeAmanda Kloots, Anna Kloots10h 54m4.4 (13.7K)$29 · $0.00
All in Her HeadElizabeth Comen13h 25m4.4 (18.2K)$33 · $0.00
The Wisdom of Your BodyHillary McBride9h 14m4.4 (6.7K)$29 · $0.00
The Alzheimer's SolutionDean Sherzai, Ayesha Sherzai9h 47m4.4 (1.9K)$29 · $0.00
Rewire Your MindsetBrian Keane6h 49m4.5 (896)$23 · $0.00
Tuning The Human Biofield: Healing With Vibrational MedicineCENTER FOR SOUND THERAPY13h 28m4.4 (2.5K)$35 · $0.00
VaccinatedPaul A. Offit8h 30m4.4 (3.7K)$26 · $0.00
You may also like
The Communist ManifestoKarl Marx, Friedrich Engels2h 13m3.9 (252.7K)$2 · $0.00
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (Annotated)Frederick Engels3h 35m4.3 (29.7K)$1.99 · $0.00
Now & AfterAlexander Berkman11h 28m3.9 (1.7K)$2 · $0.00
The City-State of BostonMark Peterson26h 16m4.2 (359)$30
Marx in 90 MinutesPaul Strathern1h 24m3.5 (1.6K)$7
Rock Me on the WaterRonald Brownstein16h 15m4.0 (2.4K)$33 · $0.00
The French Revolution and NapoleonJean-Jacques Rousseau, Alexis de Tocqueville, Montesquieu, Charles Downer Hazen62h 54m4.1 (574)$2 · $0.00
The History of Philosophy in IslamT. J. De Boer6h 47m3.7 (295)$0.60 · $0.00
AnarchismE. V. Zenker9h 37m2.9 (22)$2 · $0.00
Back to the RepublicHarry Fuller Atwood3h 26m$1 · $0.00
The Republican PartyWillis Fletcher Johnson, Ray Burdick Smith3h 57m$2 · $0.00
A Just and Generous NationHarold Holzer, Norton Garfinkle10h 10m4.0 (128)$20 · $0.00
Constitution of the Socialist Republic of VietnamNational Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam1h 28m$2 · $0.00
Ethics in ServiceWilliam H. Taft3h 34m3.3 (27)$1 · $0.00
Accordance with international law of the unilateral declaration of independence in respect of KosovoUnited Nations2h 21m$2 · $0.00
The Story of Dutch PaintingCharles H. Caffin5h 19m3.8 (30)$1 · $0.00
Constitution of the Islamic Republic of IranIranian provisional government of Mehdi Bazargan2h 47m3.8 (129)$1 · $0.00
HONORING OBAMAU.S. Government7h 44m$1.99 · $0.00
Constitution of the State of FloridaThe State of Florida1h 54m4.1 (26)$1 · $0.00
The reformation in Poland : Some social and economic aspectsPaul Fox6h 34m$2 · $0.00