Dutch newspapers on war victims and their LSD-treatment by Jan Bastiaans, from KZ-syndrome to PTSD

the great influenza pandemic of 1918 had less impact on the combatants – too late to affect the course of the war – than on the civilian population and post-war recovery, particularly in depleted Germany where economic hardship led to the eventual rise of Nazism. Kennedy concludes with COVID-19 and his thoughts on how this and the inevitable pandemics to follow will continue to shape not only our everyday lives and livelihoods but also geopolitics and the world order. He sees COVID-19 as having weakened the West and boosted the preeminence of China. This latest pandemic has yet again highlighted the perennial plight of the world’s poor, who are always more susceptible and suffer most during such insults, and his final plea is that the global community must work more effectively and harmoniously together to build a more equitable world if we are to stand a better chance of beating the next great battle against the ever-resourceful bugs. Pathogenesis is a hugely enjoyable and informative read. It’s a romp through the main seismic shifts of history, peppered with fascinating asides drawn from politics, economics and the arts. There are frequent references to such modern memes as Tolkien, Monty Python and Game of Thrones. All in all, Kennedy’s book is a refreshingly lively and contemporary take on McNeill’s Plagues and Peoples, and one which no doubt Carlyle, were he alive today, would find intriguing, if not entirely convincing.