While browsing in a bookshop I picked up a copy of 'Twelve Diseases that Changed the World' by Irwin Sherman. As a former plant pathologist and someone who has worked on Phytophthora, I was somewhat surprised to see that a plant disease had made it on to the list and the Irish potato famine at that. I'd been expecting a list of human diseases. After my surprise subsided I started to wonder how anyone actually works out the extent of these horrendous events and can list them in order of impact. Was the potato famine really the plant disease that had the greatest impact globally or is it only thought to be because those affected, or influenced, by it are the ones usually writing the history? I don't really know the answer to that but, deaths aside, I suppose the Irish potato famine would be hard to surpass in terms of how it shaped society, politics and culture.
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