The mosquito: a human history of our deadliest predator

Description

Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution? The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito. Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power. The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village.;Introduction -- Toxic twins: The mosquito and her diseases -- Survival of the fittest: Fever demons, footballs, and sickle cell safeties -- General Anopheles: From Athens to Alexander -- Mosquito legions: The rise and fall of the Roman Empire -- Unrepentant mosquitoes: A crisis of faiths and the Crusades -- Mosquito hordes: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire -- The Columbian exchange: Mosquitoes and the global village -- Accidental conquerors: African slavery and the mosquito's annexation of the Americas -- The seasoning: Mosquito landscapes, mythology, and the seeds of America -- Rogues in a nation: The mosquito and the creation of Greater Britain -- The crucible of disease: Colonial wars and a new world order -- Unalienable bites: The American Revolution -- Mercenary mosquitoes: Wars of liberation and the making of the Americas -- Mosquitoes of Manifest Destiny: Cotton, slavery, Mexico, and the American South -- Sinister angels of our nature: The American Civil War -- Unmasking the mosquito: Disease and imperialism -- This is Ann: She's dying to meet you : the Second World War, Dr. Seuss, and DDT -- Silent springs and superbugs: The mosquito renaissance -- The modern mosquito and her diseases: At the gates of extinction -- Conclusion.