Smallpox, 1713/1893: 'There are no people left, only stones' -- Plague, 1901/1907: 'The dreaded disorder' -- Spanish flu, 1918/1919: 'It threatens the existence of the entire race' -- Poliomyelitis, 1918/1963: 'The middle-class plague' -- HIV/AIDS, 1982/ : 'A catastrophe in slow motion' -- Conclusion.;"This is the first history of epidemics in South Africa, lethal episodes that significantly shaped this society over three centuries. Focusing on five devastating diseases between 1713 and today--smallpox, bubonic plague, "Spanish influenza," polio, and HIV/AIDS--the book probes their origins, their catastrophic courses, and their consequences in both the short and long terms. The impacts of these epidemics ranged from the demographic--the "Spanish flu," for instance, claimed the lives of 6 percent of the country's population in six weeks--to the political, the social, the economic, the spiritual, the psychological, and the cultural. Moreover, as each of these epidemics occurred at crucial moments in the country's history--such as during the South African War and World War I--the book also examines how these processes affected and were affected by the five epidemics. To those who read this book, history will not look the same again."--Project Muse.