Preface Peter M.A. Calverley TB has variously been described as the “Captain of the Men of Death” and the “White Plague”. Although known to the ancient Egyptians, TB cases grew exponentially in the poverty-stricken, over-crowded conditions that characterised the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. Sadly, it continues to cause death and suffering in developing economies across the Global South. TB is the foundational illness that respiratory medicine came into being to address by developing specialist treatments, accurate epidemiology and better systems for the delivery of care, ultimately leading to its eclipse in the Western world. One of the main reasons I became a pulmonary physician was because of the time I spent working for the late Sir John Crofton, the modest man who devised the triple therapy treatment regime that showed that TB could be cured rather than contained. Unsurprisingly, the ERS Monograph has visited the topic of TB before. In 2018, G.B. Migliori and colleagues presented a masterful summary of our knowledge of this condition. However, in the short time since then there have been important developments in the diagnosis and treatment of this old foe, and this merited a further volume that summaries the new approaches to the management of TB available in the 21st century. The present volume, ably edited by Alberto L. García-Basteiro, Füsun Öner Eyüboğlu and Molebogeng X. Rangaka, meets this need and provides a wider perspective on the impact and management of TB globally. Despite many challenges and setbacks, TB remains a disease that we can defeat, if we work together. This volume offers us important insights into how we can do that. Disclosures: P.M.A. Calverley reports receiving grants, personal fees and non-financial support from pharmaceutical companies that make medicines to treat respiratory disease. This includes reimbursement for educational activities and advisory work, and support to attend meetings. Copyright ©ERS 2023. Print ISBN: 978-1-84984-169-6. Online ISBN: 978-1-84984-170-2. Print ISSN: 2312-508X. Online ISSN: 2312-5098. https://doi.org/10.1183/2312508X.10013123 ix