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Reflections on the history of medicine in the second half of the twentieth century make much of the discipline's break with its association with the history of science, and the development of the new approaches and interests signalled by the coming of the 'social history of medicine'.

Over the past few years, no doubt as a consequence of HIV/AIDS newspapers have been full of stories about the threat from plagues some such as TB and bubonic plague appear like spectres from the past while apparently new diseases such as E-coli and the Ebola virus threaten to run riot in the future. It is against such a background that Christopher Wills has published Plagues.

Oh, East is East, and West is West,and never the twain shall meet,

Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat

But there is neither East nor West, Border,nor Breed, nor Birth

 When two strong men stand face to face,though they come from the ends of the earth.