Health and the Rise of Civilization

Abstract

True or false? Compared to prehistoric times, abundant evidence exists that mankind is healthier because of the rise of civilization. Difficult as it may seem, the correct answer is false, according to author Mark Nathan Cohen. In this brief, scholarly treatise, he buttresses this provocative conclusion with abundant scientific support. The author, an anthropologist on the faculty of the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, has examined diverse findings from history, cultural and physical anthropology, epidemiology, nutrition, communicable disease, and other fields including physiology and medicine. Skepticism understandably could be expected to greet such a prodigious, interdisciplinary effort. In the preface, however, Professor Cohen squarely addresses such doubts with disarming candor (p vii): I cannot do justice to the full range of information available in any one field; nor can I fully appreciate, much less explain, all of the subtleties, debated by experts in each field, that cloud straightforward