El mosquitoLa historia de la lucha de la humanidad contra su depredador más letal / The Mosquito: A human History of Our Deadliest Predator

Un libro pionero que muestra cómo, durante miles de años, el mosquito  ha sido la fuerza determinante de nuestro destino.

La guerra contra el mosquito es la historia de nuestro mundo.

A través de los tiempos, desde nuestra evolución como homínidos en  África hasta el presente, hemos estado atrapados en una lucha a vida o  muerte contra el mosquito. Pero en esa guerra por la supervivencia no  tuvimos opción. Gracias a sus adaptaciones evolutivas, nuestro obstinado  y mortal archienemigo burló los intentos de exterminarlo y continuó  alimentando su reinado del terror, aún invicto. Transformó impunemente  la historia a través de numerosas enfermedades, y hoy sigue siendo el mayor destructor de mundos y el primer y más distinguido asesino global de la humanidad.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

**The instant New York Times bestseller**
*An international bestseller*

“Hugely impressive, a major work.”—NPR

A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing how through millennia, the mosquito has been the single most powerful force in determining humanity’s fate.
 
Why was gin and tonic the cocktail of choice for British colonists in India and Africa? What does Starbucks have to thank for its global domination? What has protected the lives of popes for millennia? Why did Scotland surrender its sovereignty to England? What was George Washington's secret weapon during the American Revolution?

The answer to all these questions, and many more, is the mosquito.
 
Across our planet since the dawn of humankind, this nefarious pest, roughly the size and weight of a grape seed, has been at the frontlines of history as the grim reaper, the harvester of human populations, and the ultimate agent of historical change. As the mosquito transformed the landscapes of civilization, humans were unwittingly required to respond to its piercing impact and universal projection of power.
 
The mosquito has determined the fates of empires and nations, razed and crippled economies, and decided the outcome of pivotal wars, killing nearly half of humanity along the way. She (only females bite) has dispatched an estimated 52 billion people from a total of 108 billion throughout our relatively brief existence. As the greatest purveyor of extermination we have ever known, she has played a greater role in shaping our human story than any other living thing with which we share our global village.
 
Imagine for a moment a world without deadly mosquitoes, or any mosquitoes, for that matter? Our history and the world we know, or think we know, would be completely unrecognizable.
 
Driven by surprising insights and fast-paced storytelling, The Mosquito is the extraordinary untold story of the mosquito’s reign through human history and her indelible impact on our modern world order.

Timothy C. Winegard es doctor en historia por la Universidad de Oxford y profesor de historia y ciencias políticas en la Universidad de Colorado Mesa (Estados Unidos). Ha sido oficial de las fuerzas armadas canadienses y británicas, ha impartido conferencias en la cadena de televisión estadounidense C-SPAN y ha participado en debates televisivos y documentales. Es autor de cuatro libros sobre historia militar y estudios indígenas, que han sido publicados en varias lenguas. Con El mosquito, best seller del New York Times aclamado por la crítica, presenta una nueva y sorprendente perspectiva sobre la historia de la humanidad.