The Great Shadow

From alchemy to wellness culture,from antisemitism to disposable plastica gripping account of how getting sick has shaped humanity. Anti-scienceanti-vaccineanti-reason beliefs seem to be triumphing over common sense today. How did we get here? The Great Shadow brings a huge missing piece to this puzzleΓÇöthe experience of actually being ill. What did it feel like to be a woman or man struggling with illness in ancient timesin the Middle Agesin the seventeenth centuryor in 1920? And how did that shape our thoughts and convictions? The Great Shadow uses extensive historical research and first-person accounts to tell a vivid story about sickness and our responses to itfrom very ancient times until the last decade. In the process of writinghistorian Susan Wise Bauer reveals just how many of our current fads and causes are rooted in the moment-by-moment experience of sicknessΓÇöfrom the search for a balanced lifestyle to plug-in air fresheners and bare hardwood floors. We canΓÇÖt simply shout facts at people who refuse vaccinationsbelieve that immigrants carry diseasesor insist that God will look out for them during a pandemic. We have to enter with imaginationhistorical perspectiveand empathy into their world. The Great Shadow does just that with page-turning flair.