The Black Death

Product Information

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (24 September 2015). "FAQ: Plague". Archived from the original on 30 March 2019 . Retrieved 24 April 2017.

Walløe L (2008). "Medieval and modern bubonic plague: some clinical continuities". Medical History. Supplement. 27 (27): 59–73. doi: 10.1017/S0025727300072094. PMC 2632865. PMID 18575082. The book ends with a quote, which shows how far we have come since the dark/middle ages and – in hindsight – how little we have learned: A truly major piece of historical writing and revisionism.”—Linda Colley, author of The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the Modern World Scheidel W (2017). The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691165028.Baker G (1847) [1350]. Gilles AJ (ed.). Galfridi Le Baker de Swinbroke, Chronicon Angliae temporibus Edwardi II et Edwardi III (in Latin and English). Londini: apud Jacobum Bohn. LCCN 08014593. OL 6996785M. Archived from the original on 3 August 2008 – via Internet Archive. Michael of Piazza (Platiensis) Bibliotheca scriptorum qui res in Sicilia gestas retulere Vol 1, p. 562, cited in Ziegler, 1998, p. 40. Current research suggests that between 45-50% of the European population was devastated over a period of about 4 years (1348 – 1352). Over the course of the three waves of plague in the fourteenth century, it is estimated that anywhere from 75 million to 200 million people were killed....The massive loss of life has been considered to have effectively marked a significant turning point in the economic system of Europe. Because of the severe decrease in the working population, the bargaining power of serfs increased as landowners and noblemen became more dependent on fewer people. Wages rose, and this increase in economic power led to the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381.

The switch in chapter 13 to what was essentially historical fiction was really jarring and out of place. I've never seen this done in a history text before - that said, it was the most enjoyable chapter in the book. I couldn't help thinking though, that the author could have found more primary accounts to detail rather than crafting his own - of course, he wanted to focus on the rural villein and there are presumably few, if any, accounts from them, but it seemed it would have been more appropriate to use such primary accounts as there are.

According to historian Geoffrey Parker, "France alone lost almost a million people to the plague in the epidemic of 1628–31." [162] In the first half of the 17th century, a plague killed some 1.7 million people in Italy. [163] More than 1.25 million deaths resulted from the extreme incidence of plague in 17th-century Spain. [164] The plague awakes an anti-Semitic rage around Europe, causing repeated massacres of Jewish communities, with the first one taking place in Provence, where 40 Jews were murdered. An interesting book because it brings together a lot of information that is generally scattered around and it updates that information at all levels, particularly the medical level.

A pitiful and lamentable pestilence began in the year 1348 and endured for three years throughout the world. It resulted from the aforesaid locusts or vermin. It started in India and spread as far as England, ravaging Italy and France, and finally Germany and Hungary. The mortality was so rapid and great that barely ten persons out of every thousand survived. In some regions only about one third of the population escaped. Many cities, towns, marts and villages died out entirely and remained void. Some said that the Jews increased this calamity by poisoning the wells." First of all, what is "the" Byzantine Empire, eh? Have you ever heard a country called "the" Iraq or "the" England, huh? It appears that about a third of the population of England was carried off by this plague, although its severity varied from one part of the country to another. These were still feudal times, with Lords of the Manor and peasant-serfs (also called villeins in England), living in the countryside making up the majority of the population. Cities were still relatively small. The devastation in the countryside was therefore very significant.

World War One Centenary

Other than that, the book is fun to read with lots of thoughts. I love books that help the readers ponder. What stands out - despite this being obvious - is the remarkable hold of religion on these people and the fatuousness of religion at this and any time. You're left begging for the reformation to happen, really. Because of the severe decrease in the working population, the bargaining power of serfs increased as landowners and noblemen became more dependent on fewer people. Wages rose, and this increase in economic power led to the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381.” A truly definitive work, this magisterial study draws on the latest evidence from across Europe to show in exhaustive detail the nature of the disease, its origin, spread, mortality, and its profound impact on history.