The Black Death: A History From Beginning to End (Pande… (2024)

"Adieu, farewell earths blisse
This world uncertaine is
Fond are lifes lustful joys
Death proves them all but toyes
Non from his darts can flye
I am sick, I must dye.
Lord, have mercy on us."
- Thomas Nash

A brief overview of the many major facets of The Black Death that ravaged the world from 1348 to 1352. I believe it's very important to look back at these tragedies and learn from them in order to improve our lives today and not repeat these events that devastated millions of people. This is especially relevant today since at the time I'm writing this, the world is going through the Corona virus pandemic. Like the author mentioned, we humans have the remarkable capacity of survival and we document the events we go through, which serve as valuable information for the coming generations.

I learned a lot of interesting facts about The Black Death thanks to this short book, such as it possibly being a combination of 3 types of diseases which spread across the world and the most probable ways the plague spread itself, through certain flees that inhabited rodents, as well as counter-arguments to those claims. The author also explores the cultural impact this plague had on society and what I find particularly interesting was the fact that it contributed to women being able to have access to literature and do their own writing, since the plague paved way for literature to become more accessible to the common folk, women included, and not be exclusive to individuals of the noble class.

Lots of interesting facts to be learned in this book, expressed in an easy to read and digestible manner. Definitely recommend!

Okay.

3 stars:
-No exact date of when this person died in Colorado.
-One part that is questionable. I did not do the research to verify. I understand these series does not include references. This would have help.

I was reading Bill Bryson's book, "Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe," and he was reading "The Black Death" by Philip Ziegler and commenting on it, so I thought maybe he had the better idea, so I got this free book on kindle and began reading it instead.

I have heard about the black plague since my teenage years or was it in college? I remember once being mesmerized by a college professor's speech on the subject. Even he was mesmerized by it since his class wasn't "Black Plague 101." It could have been the English class where we had to read Camus' book. "The Plague." I remember his telling us that it could happen again. Well, it has in a small way, because last year there were 14 cases in the U.S. with 4 people dying, and every year we have a few cases of it. Not much to worry about.

Bill Bryson talked about something I had never heard about: Back in the 1300s Italy had rain for over 6 months, flooding the land by turning it into swamps, killing crops, causing famine, disease, death and later earthquakes, and then right after that the black plague.

Sounds like the end times, and yes, people thought just that. They believed that people were dying due to their sins, and that after they died God would send them to a burning hell. I didn't realize that God believed in double jeopardy, but they did. They even blamed the Jews for poisoning them because the Jews lived in ghettos and didn't contact it. They could just as easily have thought that the Jews were favored by God, but no, instead they began killing the Jews, actually wiping them out in large numbers. People are often as scary, if not more so, than the diseases that are contacted. They are just as scary today because when AIDS showed up it was because, again, God was punishing the sinners, who would then die and go to hell. And some gays and lesbians have been murdered just like the Jews during the plague. These murders went up 11 percent in 2014. But AIDS isn't the only modern disease that has been attributed to God's punishment. Ebola, for example, is another one.

I was surprised to learn how many times in history the black plague has shown up, and that the first time it caused between 75 to 100 million deaths. This was painfully scary to the people dying back then, and the world came to a stop for those 4 years or so.

I remember after my professor brought the subject up I would see rats in San Francisco and realize that one could get bitten by a flea carrying the disease and then pass it on. And actually back in the early 1900s S.F. did have the plague due to the rats--some that came over here on ships. They just love crawling up those mooring lines. Also, you don't want to know how many sewer rats they have in S.F. or in other cities, and now the drought and even constructions work is stirring them up in San Francisvo. Like my professor said, "We need more cats."

Now if you want to know what this character below has to do with the black death, you have to read this book:

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This was a great opportunity to read about the Black Plague. There were things in the book that I never knew. In fact there was a lot of facts that were new to me.

It is a good quick read. It covers the numbers of deaths all over Europe and into Asia. I did not know that there were recent outbreaks.

This is a 2.5 🌟 read rounded ⬆️ to 3 🌟.

Disappointing to say the least. One reviewer said it was like a mini Wikipedia offering ..... ummmm ..... that's because slabs of it were actually lifted straight from Wikipedia!!

This was a great summary of The Black Death. I remember learning only one sentence in Biology that the bacterium that caused the bubonic plague was Yersinia pestis. It was great to learn more about it.
There was one very interesting aspect which I'd like to share.

The children’s nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie” (or “Ring, a Ring of Roses”) is, wildly, a possible product of the Black Death. The rhyme in full, as we all know is thus: Ring around the Rosie (Ring, a Ring of Roses) Pocket full of posies, Ashes, ashes We all fall down. The first line refers to a ring of roses; this could be in reference to the rash that precipitated death from the plague. Sometimes it appeared on the body in a rose-like pattern. It could also be a reference to the rosary, which as the time of the Black Death would have been carried by every person as a constant reminder to repent of one’s sins in the hope of escaping the disease. The second line is also apt for the time. Because of the ubiquity of death, the smell of rotting corpses would have been pervasive. Flowers (or “posies”) would have been carried by a person as much as possible and often held directly to the nose to escape the odor. The theory that the disease was caused by bad air would also have played a part in this; by holding flowers to one’s nose, the bad air would be blocked thus effectively keeping the plague at bay. “Ashes, ashes” could very likely refer to the drizzle of ashes that could have been a constant part of urban life especially during the Black Death. If and when bodies were burned in an effort to rid the population of the disease, ash would have been everywhere. Corpse disposal in this way does not seem to have been common, as it was not traditional to burn bodies at the time, especially considering it was an act of desecration according to religious interpretation at the time. The final line, “we all fall down,” is fairly straightforward. Everyone was dying, or “falling” in the face of the Black Death. What seems like an innocuous nursery rhyme is actually potentially quite morbid.

Since we are amidst a pandemic it becomes important to take a look through the past. The Black Death still remains one of the harshest calamity that struck humanity as a whole. The Black Death in particular remains one of history’s most lethal events, if not the deadliest. In the Black Death of 1348-1352 alone, the body count was more than both World Wars and all recorded genocides in history combined, including the Holocaust, the Soviet Union under Stalin, and all African genocides. And that’s just considering the low end of the hypothesized figures.

This small account does a fair job to remind us of the past.

This short book was very well written and informative. While there was not a lot of totally new information for me, there was often a different way of looking at the impact the plague had – on the economic situation and power structures of the times:

“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 Black Death became personified in many different ways throughout Europe. In the south, it was seen as a skeleton or a hooded figure, sometimes with or without a scythe. In the north, Death was an old woman, also hooded. The hood more than likely was a symbol for fear of the unknown; unable to see Death’s face, one was without knowledge of what was to come”

“From a literary perspective, the plague was actually quite fortuitous for women. Prior to the Black Death, literature and writing was compiled in Latin, and was restricted to men as dictated by the Church. Because of the advent of the acceptance of vernacular literature, women were suddenly given the opportunity to participate in the written word.”

“Because of the desire to avoid that sort of pain and suffering, we now have modern medicine which helps us avoid global pandemics and mass casualties like those seen during the Black Death. And that is progress.”

If you're looking for some serious history book about The Black Death, this is book isn't it. However, if you're looking for some cursory, yet really interesting, information with no real references to the sources, then this is it. I liked it for it gave some really interesting facts about The Black Death back in the 1300s - how it spread and how it was perceived, but I really, really would've loved to see some references at the end of the book because the way it is in its current state may just as well be something the author came up with all by himself.

Wasn't quite sure how to rate this, but I think I'll go with 3.5 stars. It's a small book, but it does a decent job of covering the plague of the mid 1300s. It's not long, but a longer book on this particular subject would just be depressing, so I guess I don't have complaints with the length (and I knew it was short when I downloaded it to my kindle). I learned a few new things, especially in regards to the plague's impact on society. Overall, the writing and organization were good. I wish he would have referred to Constantinople as Constantinople instead of Istanbul (it was still Constantinople back then). A good choice for someone who wants to spend an hour on the subject and get something better than what an internet search would provide.

I love these little history books. I recommend them to anyone who wants a quick overview. They are very useful to get an idea of a subject and then you can always go on and learn more and buy a ‘proper’ book if you are still interested.

This was interesting, a bit dark (but then that is what I would expect from a book about the Black Death). It was factual and filled with interesting insights and a few dates, but not overwhelming like a text book.

I learned from this so that’s its job done I suppose. The book itself covers all aspects; an overview, what The Black Death is/was, how it spread, how it was treated, it’s impact upon the economy and the arts and its consequences throughout the globe.

A fascinating if grim book, one I recommend you start with if you are interested in this subject.
I don’t think I can quite give this top marks, it is too brief for that, but it is very good, so the next best 4*/5.

The facts and figures of the black death was mind blowing. The sheer volume of humanity wiped out by this terrible disease was anything from 75 million to 200 million which is a vague figure, but records show they couldn't keep up with the body count!

A quick, informative read, covering all aspects of the many different strains of the plague. Written concisely, with plenty of gruesome information to make this a truly revolting historical read.

I shall read more by Henry Freeman on the many other subjects that catch my eye, just to learn about the basics without too much information overload.

A nice little book covering the major points of the Black Death. It serves as a nice introduction to the various topics covered.

After some proper editing works the book could become a great source with lots of useful info.

(Kindle Ed. p. 28)
Alas! our ships enter the port, but of a thousand sailors hardly ten are spared. We reach our homes; our kindred…come from all parts to visit us. Woe to us for we cast at them the darts of death! …Going back to their homes, they in turn soon infected their whole families, who in three days succumbed, and were buried in one common grave. Priests and doctors visiting…from their duties ill, and soon were…dead. O death! cruel, bitter, impious death! …Lamenting our misery, we feared to fly, yet we dared not remain.

(Kindle Ed. p. 2)
Contemporary accounts and reflections in art show the despair and horror felt by the people living through this pandemic. The disease’s quick and unrelenting march across the face of the known world left no room for romance and idealism, and catalyzed a shift in the art and literature of the day that paved the way for the Renaissance one hundred years later. This book investigates the birth and dissemination of the Black Death across the known world, giving detail about the disease itself as well as the consequences of the pandemic on medieval society in general. It seeks to illuminate the reader with enough information to be well-informed, and perhaps to catalyze investigation further into other corners of the sweeping effects of The Plague.

(Kindle Ed. p. 26)
The Black Death in some ways profoundly changed the landscape and motivations of art. Prior to the advent of The Plague, most of European art was a reflection of God and the righteous path to heaven for the faithful. It was idealized and splendid. The horrors of the Black Death forced realism into art. One can only imagine that after witnessing the death of loved ones and friends, no one was really interested in seeing ideals of heaven when they were so clearly living in hell. They would have wanted to reflect the pain and suffering they felt in art.

So they were now "freer Humans," not only the "servants of God," and thus the Renaissance was to follow after all.

This book is

Despite the many, many errors to be edited, it's still a nice and readable book with lots of useful info. And this book made me think that the pandemic we are facing today, COVID-19, first discovered in the Chinese city of Wuhan, is not really a big threat to our Human species after all (of course it's still a heart-breaking disaster to those individuals who lost their loved ones to it).

I mean back in those days they didn't even have any vaccines, but they got to live "with" the virus after all just in 3 years or so. Today the Bubonic Virus (Pest Virus) isn't even considered fatal to us anymore; the world doesn't care about it anymore.

And to see the brighter side, just like the Black Death caused the social changes in Europe with the rising idea of Humanism, followed by Renaissance, over the "not-so-helpful" Church author'ity, our world today is moving forward to adapt to the aftermath of the pandemic with more technological advancement.

(Kindle Ed. p. 36)
Certain societal groups were also hit harder than others. Any person in a caregiving role, such as a doctor or a nurse, were exposed more often and therefore were more likely to contract the disease and die. In addition, religious persons such as monks and priests were also much more likely to become infected as they came into contact with the sickest of the sick when giving last rights.

The Church authority collapsed before the eyes of the people begging for their help. If that didn't change their mind'/ ment'ality to end an era and start a new one, what would?

Although the book is full of useful information, many typos and rough, first-draft lines are found throughout the pages, so editing work is a must-do.

Until then the book is incomplete.

(Kindle Ed. p. 5)
The first recorded account of a sweeping epidemic, known as a pandemic (the prefix pan referring to “everywhere” or “world-wide”) was in the sixth century in the Byzantine Empire while under the rule of the Emperor Justinian I...

First of all, what is "the" Byzantine Empire, eh? Have you ever heard a country called "the" Iraq or "the" England, huh?

(Kindle Ed. p. 5)
...spread the disease through all the Byzantine Empire’s vast trading routes.

Correction: ...all through the Byzantine Empire's vast trading routes.

(Kindle Ed. p. 38)
The Second Pandemic is classified as all plague incidents following the Black Death of 1347-1352 and prior to the Third Pandemic, which ravaged China and India in the nineteenth century. Thus, the Second Pandemic covers a span of approximately four hundred years. Outbreaks during this time were also incredibly severe, causing the deaths of multiple millions of people at a time. London suffered a great plague in 1665, and Paris seems to always have had the presence of plague, with at least tens of thousands of citizens dying each year. Russia also was not immune. Plague entered from the northwest and southwest in or around 1350 and remained somewhere in the country until at least 1490.

What a joke! Why don't we call the whole four centuries' wars altogether as the World War? They happened all over the world, and they were clearly more frequent than the plague outbreaks. Who started to call that the Second Wave of The Plague? Lol

(Kindle Ed. p. 25)
Figure 1: Danse Macabre, found in the graveyard of St, Magnus, Madeburg.

What is this, a joke again? Where is the image, on Internet? Lol It must be the same image that was introduced in an-other work of the same author: "Renaissance."

Lastly, the whole

(Kindle Ed. p. 6)
...The Black Death was followed by the Second Pandemic which included all outbreaks of plague subsequent to the Black Death and prior to the great plague of nineteenth century India and China. This is referred to as the Third Pandemic and claimed over 10 million lives.

Looks like it's the work of the same author of Hourly History's "Renaissance." If you read my review of the book, you will see what I'm talking about. The author should cross out these last lines (Kindle Ed. p. 6), and put this whole Chapter 2 before the first line of the Introduction.

Other than that,

(Kindle Ed. p. 29)
Perhaps the most famous of all is The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer. Similar to The Decameron in that it is a collection of tales meant to amuse and divert the reader’s attention from the horrors of the Black Death, The Canterbury Tales were also written in the vernacular, which was Middle English. The original language can still be read by modern English speakers with a bit of difficulty, and it is well-worth a read as many of the descriptions and events are incredibly funny. Even a modern translation can give the reader a sense of a bit of a stiff upper lip: while trying to escape the sureness of death, people still found amusem*nt in telling jokes and stories. It shows us that perhaps we have always been the same.

Great lines, and that's how we Human species could have survived and will survive despite all the hardships we might face on our way.

(Kindle Ed. p. 27)
...Much of what we know today about the Black Death is due to the descriptions of the disaster written in contemporary chronicles...

The precious records of the

(Kindle Ed. p. 34)
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.

And the eventual collapse of Feudalism and the end of so-called the European Middle Ages.

Anyways, OMG, look at the figures! That's more than the number of the dead during the Second World War! Looks like it didn't bring much of a change in the population-rich Far East, but that was certainly enough to end an era in the West.

(Kindle Ed. p. 39)
The Middle East was not left alone either after the initial Black Death, and plague lurked in the urban corners of the Islamic world until as late as 1850. Baghdad probably suffered the most severe population loss of all urban centers, losing up to two thirds of its population at a time...

Jeez, but why it's not remembered as anything like the European Black Death? No one taught us this at school. You see how "unbalanced" our history we learn today really is. This book has

(Kindle Ed. pp. 37-38)
Jews and gypsies in particular were considered extremely untrustworthy and therefore bore the brunt of persecution throughout the entire medieval period in Europe. The Black Death made this mistrust significantly stronger and more crazed. Because Jewish ghettos were by design more isolated, Jews did not suffer casualties to the same degree as the rest of urban society. A bizarre theory that the Jews were poisoning Christian wells arose. This lead to mass Jewish extermination via methods cruel in the extreme. People were murdered in their homes, and many Jews were burned at the stake. Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were completely wiped off the map, and in Strasbourg on Valentine’s Day over 2,000 Jews were reportedly murdered in 1349. The Black Death had not even reached Strasbourg at that time. There were also many reports of Jews committing suicide simply to avoid persecution. In a true act of Christian charity, Pope Clement VI issued two papal bulls demonizing the persecution of Jews, and published research saying the Jews were not to blame for the Black Death. However, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV simultaneously declared that any property belonging to Jews killed as a result of the persecutions became forfeit, thus effectively incentivizing potential murders. By the end of the Black Death, over one hundred Jewish communities were either attacked or destroyed in their entirety.

Well, our

(Kindle Ed. pp. 35-36)
Urban areas were hit the hardest due to compact living quarters. The Black Death claimed over half of the population in Europe and the Middle East’s largest cities: Paris, London, Florence, Hamburg, and Cairo as a whole all lost between 50% - 60% of their population from 1347 - 1351/2. Those that suffered the worst were in the Mediterranean region, specifically in cities like Florence, which could have lost in excess of 60%. In most cities, at least 50% of the population perished. Horribly, over 60% of Norwegians were killed within two years of the first incident of the Black Death on the country’s shores...In the Mediterranean region, the Black Death was constant and unforgiving, never easing up during the entire period of 1348 - 1352 and killing upwards of 75% of the population in those areas. In the north, specifically England and Germany, there were waves of plague, possibly due to freezing winter temperatures resulting in lower seasonal rat and flea populations. Here the instances of death were lower, though still dramatic, at probably close to a fifth of the total population of the time. In England, the death toll was also close to 50%, and unlike in other areas of Europe, where major losses of life ceased around 1360 when the Black Death ended, the plague never actually left England but instead lingered for centuries longer than other places in Europe and the Middle East.

So, if this account is true, it will be really possible for us today to live with the COVID-19 pandemic as well. Then it won't be considered like a "pandemic" any more, but only like the mere cold virus.

Positive fact, only for some certain countries in a big picture though, is that the virus today is helping the developed nations facing demographic crisis in the long-run because it mostly kills the elderlies, while the young working forces suffer from minor sickness and survive to live the rest of their lives.

(Kindle Ed. p. 42)
The marvelous thing about humanity, though, is its capacity to survive, and to record its own history. And through that desire to keep track and tell the tales of hardship and woe through literature, art, municipal records and the like, today we know about the devastation that disease can wreak. Because of the desire to avoid that sort of pain and suffering, we now have modern medicine which helps us avoid global pandemics and mass casualties like those seen during the Black Death. And that is progress.

Because of its "incomplete" quality as a product with its price tag on it, I had wanted to give the book only two stars, but like the same author's other book "Renaissance," some "informative" and "eloquent" lines along with the nice con-clos'/ -clus'ion saved the book.

I wonder if the author has biological or medical background, not history or social science. Or, at least, he must have done quite a good research on the topic.

I enjoyed reading the book, but many won't because the book does not simply focus on the historical or social aspects. It goes deep in medical terms, so readers who only expect the historical aspect without any medical or terminological interest won't find it enjoyable giving up in the middle of the read.

Of course I still recommend the book if you have an'y interest in medical stuff; it will be an "unexpected" fun study.

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.

If the first chapters sound very technical and factual, the author reaches later on the cultural level and that is essential. The Black Death was a traumatic experience for the world and particularly for Europe, or it is rather better known for Europe.

The trauma can be explained easily. Let’s say the European population went down 50% in about ten years. I lengthen the period slightly because it did not disappear as fast as it appeared. It took three years to reach the whole of Europe and then five to eight years to ease out (not completely but mostly). If you consider the lowering of the population to be 50% you have to add to this the births (one child per woman every 18 months or so) from which you could subtract the normal infantile death rate which was enormous, about 50% within the first six or eight years of a child’s life. That means that over ten years the death toll of the Black Death was a lot more important than 50% and probably closer to 75% of the potential population that should have been reached ten years after the arrival of this Black Death.

The only records we have for the population are church records. Priests died just like anyone else. As soon as the priest was dead the various christening, marriage and burial registers could not be held any more. We would have to wait for a new priest to arrive in the parish.

We have to take into account the fact that the epidemic spread in rural areas along different ways than those in urban areas. The Middles Ages were a time of a great improvement of agriculture, proto-industry, food and social conditions (the religious reform of the 10th century that brought 52 Sundays and about 25 days of no work at all: nearly 80 days of non-working time a year). The result was a tremendous demographic expansion that reached its limits in the last third of the 13th century and then overpopulation in rural areas caused some younger ones to just become vagrant people moving to cities or moving around in rural areas and becoming thieves of some kind. That’s long before the Black Death. But the Black Death will be spread in rural areas by these vagrants and of course by the numerous markets in cities that attracted the rural producers who went back to their rural areas after market day with the disease. We do not know when the markets were closed down, if ever; because the cities had to get food from the rural areas in a time when supermarkets did not exist.

A last element has to be added. The monasteries are essential for religious and cultural reasons. The monks have duties towards the outside population and towards the “beggars” and “travelers.” The beggars and travelers were bringing in the disease, whereas the monks going out to take care of the living and the dead outside brought the disease back inside. That explains for example that the Abbey Church of La Chaise Dieu built by Clement VI, the Jew-friendly pope suoted by this book and who was a monk in this abbey before becoming the Pope, contains a Danse Macabre of great fame. We are here in a rural and mountainous area and that area was touched by the Black Death drastically. In rural areas it is not rare that a whole village be erased from the map; and when in any village the priest died (high risk since the priests were taking care of the dying at least at first and maybe longer prudence would justify) there was no religious connection and recording of anything, explaining why we cannot have figures. We may have the figures up to the death of the priest and then we have to wait for the arrival of a new priest – eventually – several years later to catch up haphazardly on the blank spot.

Two ideas are slightly surprising. Vernacular languages did not start being used at the time or after the Black Death. Vernacular languages had been commonly used for at least three centuries by minstrels, Meistersänger, troubadours, trouveres and many others of this poets-singers profession who went around from one castle to the next, from one market place to the next, from one fair to the next to recite the poetry they had composed or they had learned by heart from other colleagues whose apprentices they were because there were no books, not even one bible in every church because there was no printing press. Literature, poetry was essentially oral and orally transmitted and distributed in the vernacular languages. One famous example is of course the Welsh triads and the story of Tristan and Iseult coming from these triads down into Cornwall and then into French Brittany to be recorded in the 12th century in French (and later to be translanted into Old Norse and German in the 13th century), the French of the time spoken among the Norman nobility and population that had taken over England in Hastings (1066). All that is long before the Black Death. What is original about Chaucer is that he wrote or composed his poetry in Middle English which was no longer the French of the older times but the new language of the elite, the court, the nobility and the socially superior classes. Note we must have three copies (all of them with serious variations) of the original Canterbury Tales and they were popular because Chaucer himself went around to recite them from memory of course. Very often these “readings” were accompanied by music on some kind of lute or harp, at times a pipe. See for that the sculptures known as the musician angels of the Abbey Church of La Chaise Dieu, once again of Clement VI.

Another surprising element is the connection between the Black Death and the Renaissance. The Renaissance would not have been possible without a deep reflection on life and death;, on cultural matters that took place during and after the Black Death period that has to be seen as longer than four years. This evolution and the dire need of a whole new generation of educated people to replace the dead in all managerial and administrative positions made it urgent to enter some “mass education” for a new enlarged elite. This is the evolution that brings up one invention without which the Renaissance is not possible: the printing press (1450) which made universities possible with books, which brought the Reformation and it is this boiling pot of needs, wants and desires that brought the Quattro Cento (that includes late Gothic art and culture and the first phase of the Renaissance) and the Renaissance itself. But the Renaissance is still a feudal period economically and socially. The ownership of the land is still feudal and it will take several centuries to get that feudal system out, first England starting with Henry VIII, though very limited as for anti-feudal reforms, and then the Stuarts, Cromwell and the Glorious Revolution; then France in 1789 and Germany and Italy in the 19th century, not to speak of Russia. Voltaire still defended before the French Revolution that no subject of a modern king, like the French one for instance, the one he called “my king”, was supposed to refuse obeying the king’s orders and could not ask in any way for the king to be removed, let alone be beheaded (Charles I of England is not far from his own consciousness). That is pure political feudalism. Though it is true Leibnitz is slightly more advanced but check the English Bill of Rights and it states freedom of speech only for the members of parliament and within the normal locales for the various parliamentarian and electoral activities of MPs, the latter concerning at the very most 5% of the population. That is not exactly a non-feudal democracy, is it?

But this short book could be very useful as an introduction to the historical reflection on the impact of a pandemic on human society.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Everything in this, still interesting book, could be found,in greater quantity on the internet. Other than that,it was a short and interesting story. And I have to add frightening to that because there is, currently, a case of bubonic plague right now in the United States.
With what we’re going through with COVID-19, it’s chilling to know that the first recorded pandemic, wiped out half the population of the earth in the 15th century...and it still exists. The good news is that not a virus but a bacterial infection from fleas that existed on rats. Thank the good Lord for antibiotics!

Again, these books are ok books. Not so great, not bad, they're just ok, like a compressed vitamin pill.

I was always fascinated about the Black death. It's not always people starts dying like flies without a control. Pesta was at work for four tireless years to reduce the number of people in a very attractive number.

This book gives a compact history throughout the period of the plague. Also provides a pretty detailed description of the plague and the spread. The only thing I wasn't impressed about is the lack of reference in some places. The reference provided was limited but that doesn't do much harm for the content. A very educative read indeed.

One passage in particular caught my attention.

In the black death of 1348-1352 alone, the body count was more than both world wars and all recorded genocides in history combined, including the holocaust, the Soviet Union under Stalin, and all African genocides. An that's considering the low end of the hypothesized figures.

200 million gone.. Maybe more.. Fascinating

Book #26 of 2023

This book tells the very basics about the bubonic plague. This book was very short. Although the bubonic plague occurred in the 14th century, there are still a number of facts that can be reported. This book does a good job of reporting those facts.

A brief yet concise history of the Black Death pandemic. I found it extremely interesting in view of the coronavirus pandemic we are experiencing now.

La Black Death o Mors Nigra a que se refiere este estudio es la mismísima que conocemos como Peste Bubónica. Esta se dio en varias épocas de la historia, pero la más mortífera fue la de 1348 a 1352.
La primera oleada se dio en el año 542 en el Imperio Bizantino de Justiniano, y se cree que murieron por esta causa unos 25 millones de personas.
Se dice que la peste se esparció de tierra firme asiática vía Europa, por medio de barcos que recorrían las rutas comerciales del Mediterráneo. Así llegaron a Italia y Grecia yendo al oeste y a Asia Menor por el este.
La segunda oleada, se piensa que tuvo su origen en el Asia Central, específicamente en Mongolia y China del oeste. Los ratones infectados por las pulgas, eran originarios del Kurdistan y de la India del norte, que llegaron a Mongolia y causaron una epidemia mortal una década antes de su llegada a Europa. Por el Camino de la Seda llegó al puerto de Haffa en Crimea y de ahí a los barcos genoveses que habían instalado en ese puerto un centro de transferencia de mercancías. El primer sitio en donde se dio la peste fue en Pisa, Italia. En 1348 llegó a Francia, de ahí a España y Portugal. De este último paso a Inglaterra, y ésta la pasó a Alemania; en 1349 ya estaba en Noruega. Islandia y Rusia recibieron la peste en 1351. Por Sicilia pasó a Egipto, a la Meca, Mosul y Bagdad en 1349.
La investigación moderna nos cuenta que la Peste Bubónica tenía 2 tipos de "Y. pestis": una que entró a Europa por Marsella, y la otra, llegó por los Países Bajos. Bocaccio describe en El Decamerón los síntomas: la peste produce una muerte horrible y grotesca. Un "gavocciolo" era un tumor purulento, también conocido como "buba", de ahí el término de Peste Bubónica. Una vez aparecidas las bubas, muchos sufrían fiebre aguda, vómitos de sangre y morían a los 7 días.
Se cree (digo "se cree" porque en ese tiempo no existían registros creíbles y completos, los médicos que llevaban las cuentas también morían),que debido a esta pandemia se causaron más muertes que en todas las guerras, incluidas las mundiales del siglo XX. De una población de 450 millones de europeos, sobrevivieron sólo 350 millones.

This was a very short history about the Black Plague in the Middle Ages. I knew it was going to be short, but I was still disappointed because most of these writers of short histories are not great writers anyway...but Freeman was pretty good, and I liked the research he did. Several of my favorite science writers, especially in medical science have died...so I'm always on the outlook for someone new in this are who is not only capable of the research necessary to make the book interesting, but also a good writer. So it bugs me a little that I found one who writes very short histories in this area.
Sigh...

I learned some new things in this history about the plague that I didn't know. That's definitely something I want in these books. Good information on some of the possible medical theories still out there on exactly what this plague was, because the current bubonic plague doesn't have what is known as the 'kill rate' that the bubonic plague had in the Middle ages.

I highly recommend this book if someone wants a quick understanding of the plague. Now I have to go find another more in-depth book on it because my curiosity has been aroused.

The kindle edition has 45 pages. It took me about 20 minutes to completely read it. It consists of multiple explanations for why the Black Death started. It also talks about plague doctors and literature works that resulted from the plague. It briefly discusses persecution due to religious beliefs. Most importantly, the timeline goes through different outbreaks.

Pro: The structure of the book starts with the Black Death, then the second pandemic, and ends with the third pandemic. This allows the reader to understand that there was more than one outbreak. Great book for those wanting to learn a little about the Black Death.

Con: While this little book is comprehensive, some of the events mentioned are very brief. So, if you are looking for a book that is more in-depth when it comes to different pandemics then this book is not for you.

The book is so well written that one could actually feel the pain of those impacted by the plague. At some places, I felt the narration was so realistic that I was feeling afraid that I would get bubonic plague myself. Phew!!! Also, it was interesting to read the atrocities of few superstitious on the Jew community.

Could have been more interesting. They did good job in giving so much info in so little words. The book was well structured.

It's more like an informative magazine. Took me 90 minutes to read.

Considering the times I thought it was ironic to reading a book on the most well known and wide spread pandemic known to us today.

Killing millions of people, it wiped out much of the worlds population, with no access to sanitation or knowledge of hygiene, the plague spread like wildfire killing most in its path.

The bacteria that causes the Black Death is actually fairy complex, causes a mutation in the gut of the flea it infects. From there the flea regurgitates the bacteria back into the bite wound from its own feeding therefore infecting the host.

Something that would have terrified the people who suffered with this disease is the swiftness in which it killed, usually within days. Even today there is a death rate of 75% of the bubonic plague, which is really very scary when you think about it as there are still outbreaks in some parts of Africa.

The infamous plague doctor mask is still popular today and seen throughout modern life in books, tv shows, films... they were a necessity even though their medical knowledge was very limited or non existent, they performed important roles as such research and keeping records of the dead.

Many believed it was sent by god to repent for their sins, it was such a wide spread and contagious disease it laid waste to many countries before it finally died out.

I love these kinds of books, short but informative and very interesting. I can’t imagine how scary life must have been to be able during the Black Death, without the knowledge we have today to protect ourselves, it must have felt like lambs being left to the slaughter waiting to fall sick.

For what this book is, it gets 4 stars (more like 3.5 or so, but that's not possible on this site). If you do not know much about the topic and just want an overview with adequate breadth and just a dash of depth, then this book is perfect. It is well-written for quick comprehension, but goes beyond just a descriptive account and delves briefly into the potential historical, social, geographical, political, etc. factors that may have led the areas most affected to be so for so long. The context given is just enough to give some meaning beyond just that a lot of people died from a disease at this time. In fact, I didn't realize that the Black Death was not just one plague, but a series of them with more than one cause going on behind the scenes through time (which makes the sheer numbers of deaths and the large area suffering from the affliction more than if it had been as simple as I had heard it mentioned before in passing). It also showed how the third pandemic (recurrence of it) culminated with a need to mourn, but then gave way to the Renaissance.

Quick read, seriously if you don't take a break, you can read it in the same amount of time (probably less) than some boring show on Netflix you're about to watch anyway. Read this instead!

Nice overview of the plague

Honestly I felt it was a bit short but I feel what was covered was covered decently. I would have loved to read more as this is a favorite subject of mine.

Quick overview

This was a quick overview of the Black Death throughout history. Some interesting facts were included such as how people reacted and daily life at the time. The Kindle edition did not include the referenced artwork however.

A short read that took a long time😬