Historians and doctors have much in common. Both acknowledge that the  proper study of mankind is Man. Both are particularly interested in the  influences which condition human existence. . . . In medical diagnosis,  a single cause for disease will often be found. In historical  investigation, the causes are likely to be complex. Nothing could be  more ridiculous than to contend that disease is always the primary cause  of great historical change; but, particularly at a time when the  sociological aspects of history are being emphasized, it is worth  examining those episodes in which the influence of disease may have been  of real importance, especially when that importance has been neglected  or misconstrued by more conventional historians.

Frederick Cartwright, Disease and History

 Over the millennia, various epidemic and pandemics have greatly  influenced the course of human events. This can be witnessed in military  and political affairs, in cultural worldviews, in the development of  the arts and folklore. This assignment consists of descriptions of  epidemics from throughout the western world and interpretations of their  impact.  In a short research paper consider the following questions and  answer them in your response. 

Be sure to synthesize (all) the material into your own analysis of  the role of plague throughout the centuries. Are the plagues discussed  the same diseases? What are their similarities? What are their  differences? What effect do these illnesses have on society, culture,  politics, and the economy? Are there commonalities to man’s reaction or  response to the sickness? What does the reaction of humanity to epidemic  say about our species? Is mankind more capable of dealing with an  epidemic or even pandemic in one period than another?

Submission Requirements: This  assignment must comply with summary format guidelines: Introductory  paragraph (what and how you are going to show, describe, "prove," etc.),  multi-paragraph body (where the evidence is used to support your  position using in-text citations), and a closing paragraph (what you  have shown, described, proved, argued, etc.).

 Selected readings from the following are provided from the following:

Thucydides, “The Great Plague at Athens”

Procopius, “Justinian’s Plague”

Documents on the Black Death

         Jean de Venette, “The Plague in France”

         Giovanni Boccaccio, “A Most Terrible Plague”

         Matteo Villani, “God’s Hand was Unstrung”

Samuel K. Cohn, Jr., The Black Death: End of a Paradigm”

“Orders for the Prevention of the Plague, 1666”

Daniel Defoe, “Journal of the Plague Year”

A. W. Sloan, “Medical and Social Aspects of the Great Plague of London in 1665”