Charles De Paolo, the author of numerous books, is a professor of English at Manhattan Community College, the City University of New York. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey.

“thoroughly and extensively referenced”—The Times Literary Supplement.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Abbreviations      Introduction      Part I: The Pre-Conceptual Modality1. The Hands of Dagon: Epidemic Anomalies in I Samuel 5–6      2. The Fierce Onslaught of Fate: Greco-Roman Pre-Conceptuality      3. The Sins of the Nation: Early Christian Pre-Conceptuality      Part II: The Observational Modality4. Set Down Its Nature: Eyewitness Reporting in the Age of Pericles      5. The Province of Human Reasoning: Eyewitness Reporting and the Plague of Justinian      6. The Vast Estates: The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio      Part III: The Investigative Modality7. Persons of Thought: Nathaniel Hodges and the London Plague of 1664–1665      8. The Topography of Inference      9. From Etiology to Synergy      Part IV: Eyewitness Reporting, Language, and Imaginative Writing10. The Democracy of Affliction: Modern Eyewitness Reporting      11. The Language of Reason: Plague Extrapolations in Modern Fiction      12. A Just and Proper Tale: Figurative Language and Epidemiological Discourse      13. A Tangible Something: The Yellow Fever Construct      14. The Dynamics of Fear and the Mechanisms of Resistance      Works Cited      Index

Charles De Paolo, the author of numerous books, is a professor of English at Manhattan Community College, the City University of New York. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey.

“thoroughly and extensively referenced”—The Times Literary Supplement.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Abbreviations      Introduction      Part I: The Pre-Conceptual Modality1. The Hands of Dagon: Epidemic Anomalies in I Samuel 5–6      2. The Fierce Onslaught of Fate: Greco-Roman Pre-Conceptuality      3. The Sins of the Nation: Early Christian Pre-Conceptuality      Part II: The Observational Modality4. Set Down Its Nature: Eyewitness Reporting in the Age of Pericles      5. The Province of Human Reasoning: Eyewitness Reporting and the Plague of Justinian      6. The Vast Estates: The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio      Part III: The Investigative Modality7. Persons of Thought: Nathaniel Hodges and the London Plague of 1664–1665      8. The Topography of Inference      9. From Etiology to Synergy      Part IV: Eyewitness Reporting, Language, and Imaginative Writing10. The Democracy of Affliction: Modern Eyewitness Reporting      11. The Language of Reason: Plague Extrapolations in Modern Fiction      12. A Just and Proper Tale: Figurative Language and Epidemiological Discourse      13. A Tangible Something: The Yellow Fever Construct      14. The Dynamics of Fear and the Mechanisms of Resistance      Works Cited      Index

Charles De Paolo, the author of numerous books, is a professor of English at Manhattan Community College, the City University of New York. He lives in Aberdeen, New Jersey.

“thoroughly and extensively referenced”—The Times Literary Supplement.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Abbreviations      Introduction      Part I: The Pre-Conceptual Modality1. The Hands of Dagon: Epidemic Anomalies in I Samuel 5–6      2. The Fierce Onslaught of Fate: Greco-Roman Pre-Conceptuality      3. The Sins of the Nation: Early Christian Pre-Conceptuality      Part II: The Observational Modality4. Set Down Its Nature: Eyewitness Reporting in the Age of Pericles      5. The Province of Human Reasoning: Eyewitness Reporting and the Plague of Justinian      6. The Vast Estates: The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio      Part III: The Investigative Modality7. Persons of Thought: Nathaniel Hodges and the London Plague of 1664–1665      8. The Topography of Inference      9. From Etiology to Synergy      Part IV: Eyewitness Reporting, Language, and Imaginative Writing10. The Democracy of Affliction: Modern Eyewitness Reporting      11. The Language of Reason: Plague Extrapolations in Modern Fiction      12. A Just and Proper Tale: Figurative Language and Epidemiological Discourse      13. A Tangible Something: The Yellow Fever Construct      14. The Dynamics of Fear and the Mechanisms of Resistance      Works Cited      Index