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It was attacked mainly by work eliminating mosquitos, correct? A lot of that was done with DDT which unfortunately is not without its problems.

Yeah, mostly mosquito eradication, I think.

[edit] My mom remembers how all the kids would run and ride bikes behind the city pesticide spray trucks when they came around a few times each Summer, trailing thick clouds of… DDT.

"1491" is already a Hacker News favorite (rightfully so), but Charles Mann's "1493" is also a superb book, which contains a long section covering the impact of malaria on Europe and the Americas.

I might have liked 1493 even more than 1491, personally.

In the early days of the Holy (Western) Roman Empire, the various Germanic Emperors would only come down into Rome during the colder months when it was safe from malaria, and head out north to the cold when it got warm because Rome was a hotbed for malaria.