PANDEMONIUM!

A plaguescape from the Black Death to Long COVID-and the warning we need for what comes next.

Do you remember the strange quiet of March 2020? The empty grocery stores, the face masks, the low hum of anxiety that hasn't really gone away? In PANDEMONIUM!, Dr. G. Ashby argues that the year 2020 is not behind you-it is inside you. Carried in your shoulders, your habits, and your low-grade vigilance.

This is not a textbook. It is a journey through humanity's greatest catastrophes and most remarkable survivals.

Travel from the plague pits of London to the wet markets of Wuhan. Witness the Roman Empire shaken by the Antonine Plague, the birth of epidemiology at a London water pump, and the fierce activism of the AIDS crisis. Explore how the "Russian Flu" of 1889 eerily predicted the debates of 2020, and learn why the next pandemic (H5N1, Nipah, or the mysterious "Disease X") is already brewing in bat caves, pig farms, and thawing permafrost.

PANDEMONIUM! asks one question over and over: What did they do that we should have remembered?

With dark wit and clear-eyed storytelling, Ashby connects the dots between climate change, bioterrorism, and the erosion of trust. You will learn why paid sick leave is a pandemic defense, why ventilation matters as much as vaccines, and why the "Anti-Mask League" of 1919 is still with us today.

This is a book for survivors. Not just the dramatic ones, but everyone who rebuilt their daily life while the rulebook kept changing. It will help you name what you are carrying-and then, maybe, set some of it down.