Dread

The average individual is far more likely to die in a car accident than from a communicable diseaseỷet we are still much more fearful of the epidemic. Even at our most level-headed, the thought of an epidemic can inspire terror. As Alcabes persuasively argues in Dread, our anxieties about epidemics are created not so much by the germ or microbe in question-or the actual risks of contagion-but by the unknown, the undesirable, and the misunderstood. Alcabes examines epidemics through history to show how they reflect the particular social and cultural anxieties of their times. From Typhoid Mary…