Mary Kilbourne Matossian – Författare

Did food poisoning cause the Black Plague, the Salem witch-hunts, and other significant events in human history? In this pathbreaking book, historian Mary Kilbourne Matossian argues that epidemics, sporadic outbursts of bizarre behavior, and low fertility and high death rates from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries may have been caused by food poisoning from microfungi in bread, the staple food in Europe and America during this period.“A bold book with a stimulating thesis. Matossian’s claims for the role of food poisoning will need to be incorporated into any satisfactory account of past demographic trends.”—John Walter, Nature“Matossian’s work is innovative and original, modest and reasoned, and opens a door on our general human past that historians have not only ignored, but often did not even know existed.”—William Richardson, Environmental History Review“This work demonstrates an impressive variety of cross-national sources. Its broad sweep also reveals the importance of the history of agriculture and food and strengthens the view that the shift from the consumption of mold-poisoned rye bread to the potato significantly contributed to an improvement in the mental and physical health of Europeans and Americans.”—Naomi Rogers, Journal of American History“This work is a true botanical-historical tour de force.”—Rudolf Schmid, Journal of the International Association of Plant Taxonomy“Intriguing and lucid.”—William K. Beatty, Journal of the American Medical Association

This innovative survey of world history from earliest times to the present focuses on the role of four factors in the development of humankind: climate, communication and transportation technology, scientific advances, and the competence of political elites. Matossian moves chronologically through fifteen historic periods showing how one or more of the causative factors led to significant breakthroughs in human history. Shaping World History is based on original research and also draws widely from the literature on the history of science, technology, climate, agriculture, and historical epidemiology. This compelling analysis is presented in a personal style and includes reflections on how things work and why they are important.