Friday, Feb. 20, the College of William and Mary hosted the “How Sickness Shapes Us” book talk with historian Susan Wise Bauer M.A. ’96, Ph.D. ’07 at the Glenna Bowman MacKenzie Theater. She delivered a presentation on her recent book, “The Great Shadow: A History of How Sickness Shapes What We Do, Think, Believe, and Buy.”
Bauer began with a discussion about her research on human beings and the impact of sickness. She emphasized that historically, people were more likely to die from “mundane” diseases, leading to changes in their worldviews.
Bauer proceeded to show images of the past, such as a depiction of smallpox inoculation, related to human beliefs about sickness.
She transitioned into an exposition of her research, delineating human history into five phases.
The first was Act One, “Gods and Demons.” Bauer explained how domestication, grain consumption and increased population density created epidemics that human beings tried to comprehend with religion. This understanding tied individual religious failings to illness.
In Act Two, “Balance,” Bauer discussed how Hippocrates believed an imbalance in the four humors — blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile — caused illness. Humans predominantly followed Hippocrates’ beliefs for 2000 years.
“Whenever we got sick, we thought of that as a lack of balance with the natural world,” Bauer said.
Act Three, titled “Terrifying Germs,” centered on how the invention and use of microscopes contributed to the development of germ theory and transformed understandings of illness.
“So from the 1850s through 1882, there is this continuing recognition that actually, sickness is not caused by an imbalance between our bodies and the world around us,” Bauer said. “It is caused by something from the outside that comes in and gets us.”
Bauer titled the fourth act “Triumph,” also referring to it as the “Pax Antibiotica.” Beginning in the post-World War II era, developments in antibiotics like penicillin and vaccines for polio, DPT and other conditions fostered a widespread belief that humanity had finally overcome disease.
In Act Five, “Fear,” Bauer described the major shift in the human story with disease.
“The Pax Antibiotica is over; that fleeting period of victory has ended,” she said. “It becomes increasingly clear that we don’t, in fact, have all of the answers.”
A theme throughout the presentation was how different conceptions of sickness continue over time.
“Wellness culture, again, gets this huge boost,” Bauer said. “If medical science doesn’t have the answer, we’re going to go back to this Hippocratic idea that what we really need to do is establish a proper balance between us and the universe.”
In closing, Bauer said the study revealed how readily humans can embrace conflicting explanations simultaneously. Rather than searching ahead for new answers when current solutions fall short, people often look backwards.
“These are not just reactions that have to do with sickness,” Bauer said. “These are reactions that have to do with how we, as people, deal with the unknown. Deal with the frightening. Deal with something that is out of our control.”
Mary Bull M.A. reflected on her favorite parts of the book talk.
“I thought there was a lot of cool analysis in how she created those five time periods,” Bull said. “It gave her an opportunity to focus on how people have some consistent ways of acting, even though there are other kinds of change that happen over time.”
Senior Director of Communications & Engagement Tami Back explained that several groups, especially alumni, are the main sources for book talks. In this case, Back’s dean alerted her to Bauer’s book.
“I looked it up, and the title alone grabbed me,” Back said. “I just knew right away, we definitely wanted to have Susan come and do a book talk for us.”
Like Bull, Back believes Bauer made a convincing, compelling argument. Her perspective was also impacted by the lecture and book.
“I think that it explains a lot today, especially with misinformation about health and wellness,” Back said.
