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The Empress and the English Doctor: How Catherine the Great defied a deadly virus
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About This Book
The astonishing true story of how Catherine the Great joined forces with a Quaker doctor from Essex to spearhead one of the first global public health campaigns. A TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022 SO FAR Shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2022 'Sparkling history…with a fairytale atmosphere of sleigh rides, royal palaces and heroic risk-taking' The Times A killer virus…an all-powerful Empress…an encounter cloaked in secrecy…the astonishing true story. Within living memory, smallpox was a dreaded disease. Over human history it has killed untold millions. Back in the eighteenth century, as epidemics swept Europe, the first rumours emerged of an effective a mysterious method called inoculation. But a key problem convincing people to accept the preventative remedy, the forerunner of vaccination. Arguments raged over risks and benefits, and public resistance ran high. As smallpox ravaged her empire and threatened her court, Catherine the Great took the momentous decision to summon the Quaker physician Thomas Dimsdale to St Petersburg to carry out a secret mission that would transform both their lives. Lucy Ward expertly unveils the extraordinary story of Enlightenment ideals, female leadership and the fight to promote science over superstition. 'A rich and wonderfully urgent work of history' Tristram Hunt
Reviews
"Ward would have us follow the example of Russia's great empress."
"Ward sets her story in the context of the story of inoculation, and it's all the more gripping to read having lived through the Covid vaccination campaign."
"The skepticism and hesitancy about COVID-19 vaccines make Ward's eminently readable history feel timely as she expertly examines the intersection of medicine and politics."
"More than anything, it is a biography of the birth of vaccination."
"Brimming with vivid historical details, this is a memorable account of a medical and social breakthrough."
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