'… the work of a true scholar … [the] case-study approach is marvelously holistic, detailed and informative.' Andrew Bent, Trends in Plant Science

This book is about how plants get diseases, from the origins and evolution of parasites to how the great plant epidemics developed. The basic premise of the book is that the conditions favouring disease are inherent in agriculture and that diseases become destructive because of human activities. It also deals with how people have dealt with plant diseases in history. Included in the book are the natural histories of some of the most damaging plant diseases, worldwide, with discussions of why each became destructive. Diseases are grouped according to the most significant factors in the development of epidemics: in every case this is due to a human factor. Discussion of each model disease proceeds from observable facts to more complex concepts; thus, the reader with little knowledge of plant pathology should find the book easily understandable.

Acknowledgements
1. Perspective
Part I. Biology and Control of Plant Diseases: 2. Causes and spread of plant disease
3. How pathogens attack plants
4. How plants defend against pathogens
5. Ecological considerations
6. Disease controls and their limitations
Part II. Natural History of Some Destructive Diseases: 7. Native plants, alien pathogens
8. Alien plants, native pathogens
9. Pathogens overtake movement of crop plants
10. Monoculture: removal of ecological restraints
11. Monoculture: pathogen adaptability
12. Monoculture: Cochliobolus diseases with toxins
13. Monoculture: Alternaria diseases with toxins
14. Diseases amplified by changes in agriculture
15. Anthropogenic reintroduction each year
16. Abiotic diseases: damage from air pollution
17. Prospectus
Glossary: technical terms used in the texts
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Plant pathology & diseases [PSTP]