This is all mostly for my own benefit, as I  research mass psychogenic illness, communicable hysteria, pandemics, public heath, and states of medical emergency for my novel-in-progress–but if you’re remotely interested in the subject(s) (or just nosy about what I’m reading), feel free to check out the books and links on this evolving list.

BOOKS
Philip Alcabes, Dread: How Fear and Fantasy have Fueled Epidemics from the Black Death to the Avian Flu (PublicAffairs: 2009).

Robert E. Bartholomew, Little Green Men, Meowing Nuns and Head-Hunting Panics: A Study of Mass Psychogenic Illnesses and Social Delusion (McFarland & Company: 2001).

Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (Penguin: 1995).

Charles Mackey, Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds (1841).
http://www.archive.org/details/extraordinarypop014178mbp

RR Madden, Phantasmata; or, Illusions and Fanaticisms of Protean forms, Productive of Great Evils (London, T. C. Newby: 1857).
http://openlibrary.org/b/OL6529089M/Phantasmata

Peter Moore, MD, The Little Book of Pandemics (Key Porter Books: 2007).

Edward Shorter, From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era (Free Press: 1993).

John Waller, The Dancing Plague: The Strange True Story of an Extraordinary Illness (Sourcebooks:  2009).

JOURNAL ARTICLES
Robert E. Bartholomew, Phd/Simon Wessely, Phd, “Protean Nature of Mass Sociogenic Illness.” The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2002.

Sandra Chapman, “Preparing for the Next Outbreak: Is America Asking the Right Questions?” Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 59, Spring 2006.

Joshua Lederberg, “Infectious History.” Science, Vol. 288, April 2000.

John Waller, “Looking Back: Dancing Plagues and Mass Hysteria.” The Psychologist, Vol. 22, July 2009.

WEBSITES
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices
“Preparing for a Pandemic Influenza: A Primer for Governors and Senior State Officials”
http://www.nga.org/Files/pdf/0607PANDEMICPRIMER.PDF

Infectious Diseases Society of America

• “Bad Bugs, No Drugs”
  http://www.idsociety.org/badbugsnodrugs.html
• “Pandemic and Seasonal Influenza Principles For U. S. Action”
  http://www.idsociety.org/influenza.htm

Committee on New Directions in the Study of Antimicrobial Therapeutics
“Treating Infectious Diseases in a Microbial World”
http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/antimicrobials_brief_final.pdf

National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
“Understanding Microbes in Sickness and Health”
http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/microbes/PDF/microbesbook.pdf

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“The Economic Impact of Pandemic Influenza in the United States: Priorities for Intervention”
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no5/meltzer.htm

Discovery Channel
MythBusters: Mega Movie Myths: Shootin’ Locks
http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-mega-movie-myths-shootin-locks.html