The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence examines the introduction of infectious diseases among the Indians of the Northwest Coast culture area (present-day western Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and southeast Alaska) in the first century of contact and the effects of these new diseases on Native American population size, structure, interactions, and viability. The emphasis is on epidemic diseases and specific epidemic episodes. In most parts of the Americas, disease transfer and depopulation occurred early and are poorly documented. The many quotations from contemporary sources underscore the magnitude of the human suffering. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence is the definitive study of introduced diseases in the Pacific Northwest.

Robert Boyd hails from Fraser Valley. In his spare time, he can be found exploring the ghost towns of Western Canada and hiking the Kettle Valley Railway. He worked as a surveyor for the Alberta Department of Transportation before eventually settling near Vancouver, BC. Portia Bench is his second published work

Robert Boyd's profile page

Boyd clearly aims to further the scholarly dialogue with a clear, honest, and transparent presentation of his findings ... One of the most promising aspects of Boyd’s work is the degree to which he has uncovered evidence that addresses the consequences of disease epidemics apart form that of the demographic collapse ... Boyd’s book is very useful in that it gives detailed reconstructions of the spread of diseases on the Northwest Coast between 1774 and 1874, and it presents intriguing qualitative evidence about the effects of these diseases upon the Natives of that region and about the responses of those people to these scourges.

Recent H-Net Reviews

A data-rich, well-written, authoritative work.

Choice

In this important and comprehensive work, Robert Boyd shows how successive waves of introduced diseases not only decimated many of the societies of the Northwest Coast, but also had significant impacts on those societies’ ability to cope with the changes wrought by contact with the very groups who introduced the diseases ... As a model for studies of other parts of North and South America, this engaging, scholarly work provides important insights into understanding what has historically been portrayed as the ‘conquest.’

CBRA 4205