Product Description

It ravaged a continent for over a century, killed millions of people and decimated economies. The Black Death is considered by many to have been the great watershed in medieval history. In this book the author challenges historical thinking about this disastrous period. He asks was the Black Death bubonic plague? Nobody ever mentions rats dying in large numbers. Were buboes the main symptoms? Doctors of the day and evidence from the lives of saints describe "freckles" as often as buboes. Looking beyond the view of the Black Death as unmitigated catastrophe, the author sees in it the birth of technological advance as societies struggle to create labour-saving devices in the wake of population losses. Medieval Europe had reached a demographic impasse. It was the precipitous drop in population that spurred the changes that propelled Europe into the modern era. Population controls shifted from natural checks to preventative measures, including new inheritance practices, revised marriage customs and birth control. New evidence for the plague's role in the establishment of universities, spread of Christianity, dissemination of vernacular cultures and even the rise of nationalism demonstrates that this cataclysmic event marked a true turning point in history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48210 in Books
• Published on: 1997-10-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
Herlihy proposed that the Black Death led to "the transformation of the West" and shaped crucial aspects of modern thinking and behavior. Briefly and lucidly, Herlihy argued that Europe was...locked into Malthusian stasis, with a population unable to improve its standard of living and possessed of a set of unchanging and stagnating institutions. The Black Death was to shake Europe out of its immobile lethargy and to initiate processes of renewal...Samuel Cohn's succinct introduction provides an excellent commentary on Herlihy's theses. -- Andrew Wear "Times Literary Supplement"

Customer Reviews

A Good Book on the Study of the Black Death
I had read late David Herlihy's book back in college and I just read it again. It is rather a very short book as it took me a little over an hour to read. It is a very readable, well written, and quite insightful. This book consisted of three parts: the question of the Black Death itself, the economic after-effects, and the impact of the plague on the social institutions/orders.

I found this book to be quite intriguing read, and holds a great benefit for those who are interested in studying the horrific events of the Black Death.

More of an essay than a book
The author explores some interesting angles on the effects of the plague but does not provide enough evidence for some of his conclusions. At only 81 pages (not including references)it is a longish essay rather than a book.