Ch 1. The way we live now - and the way we once lived -- Ch. 2. Debates and theories -- Ch. 3. Song China and the Ming restoration - a case study -- Ch. 4. The military revolution and the world it made -- Ch. 5. The European divergence -- Ch. 6. The scientific revolution and the shaping of the...

Pandemics are a recurring feature of human history. The COVID-19 virus has several features that mean it poses a particularly severe challenge. It threatens to cause a collapse of hospital systems through a high number of serious cases arising in a short period of time, and this, rather than...