To paraphrase the great sci-fi writer Stephen King: Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your heart, kill your darlings. Translation: stay on point and mercilessly avoid side stories and anecdotes. With much respect for Mr. King, The History of Man Series is precisely that, a great deal about all those little darlings, a style of writing termed “jumping off.”

The Fourth History of Man continues with virus infections where The Third History of Man left off: hashing out those specks of genetic schmutz, covering the R-naught of those naughty infectious scoundrels. Some big hitters will be considered, from polio and the famous celebrities that had it, through 50 shades of hepatitis, rabies and the hair of the dog, and the monkey business of HIV and AIDS. Leaving viruses, we’ll delve into a study of parasites, including the parasite of all parasites, Sigourney Weaver’s alien. Opening up a can-of-worms we’ll launch a nerd rumble: who would win between Weaver’s Alien and Schwarzenegger’s Predator. Other topics include the sociology of a social death preceding the actual death, the sociology of sexual cannibalism, and the sociology of colors, not just of yellow fever, but of other emotions under the rainbow, hopefully not making you feel positively blue. On the science side, we’ll flip the script on the infamous Krebs cycle, fleeced of the boring jargon that usually flows from the lecture hall and our road will scrutinize nuclear bombs, nuclear footballs and weapons of mass destruction, the secret of Ondine’s curse, and lessons in global warming.

The History of Man Series is written in a jumping off style, using medicine, disease, and health themes, fleeced of the normal jargon that all too often accompanies science narratives, as the foundation to jump off into history, world history, human history, American history, ancient history, biographies, celebrities and the rich and famous, the body, aging and longevity, science, biology and nature, physics, even some math thrown in, anatomy, a travel book of geology, geography, continents, Europe, Asia, Africa, America, South America, Australia, even the North Pole and South Pole, astronomy, the universe and cosmos, war, politics, nature, art, music, romance, folklore, religion, the Bible, mythology, sports and athletes, weather, climate change and global warming, and maybe even some non-prescriptive self-help commentaries tossed in for good measure. And to add yet another twist to the writing style, another layer, each book showcases some personal anecdotes Dr. Bershof experienced during his life in medicine, a few biography sketches of suspense and thrillers that reveal a glimpse how the mind of a doctor works...or doesn’t work.

We’ll cherish all the darlings we encounter on our travels as they tell the tale of the humanity that remains eternal in all of us, in all its splendor and all its tragedy. All human activity and that of the Universe lies within our scope. Unlike Bryson’s wonderful book A Shorty History of Nearly Everything, a must-listen, this series makes no apologies for being a tome about nearly everything.