Plagues and Peoples

How does the change in geography produced by human demographical growth affect disease patterns?

Why did McNeill radically decenter humanity from what is essentially a narrative about humanity? What definitional tools did he use to make that decentering effective?

For most of the time period discussed in Plagues and People, there were no reliable medical writings or records. What tools did McNeill have at his disposal to fill in his history and how did he make use of them?

What defines a parasite? Does McNeill go too far in defining so much of human activity as parasitic, or was this framing necessary in order to evoke the enormous scope of millennia-long ecological balance? 

What should be the role of science in history? Is there a place for the practice of history as distinct from science when exploring humanity on a large scale?

McNeill often anthropomorphizes patterns of disease and ecological functions, as when he compares humanity to a disease on page 41, and masses of people are often referred to as “waves.” What other historical metaphors are present? Are any of these problematic, and if so, why?

How and why does McNeill center European history in his narrative of world history?

What is the relationship between vaccination and the rise of modern urban landscapes?