The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time (P.S.)

A well-written book that gets a bit repetetive by the last 100 pages, The Great Mortality is most interesting in detailing how the black death contributed to paving the way for changes in modern society. Anything from more emphasis on practical observations in medicine rather than Galen's theory of 4 humors to people's overall disenchantment with the church, this book shows what an important period of time the 14th Century was for human history. Also enlightening is a detailed account of the persecution Jews received at the time, when Christians blamed them for poisoning the wells and causing the plague. An elucidating point that shows how history repeats itself and reminds us just how foolish people can act when they're scared and irrational.

Kelly is a storyteller. He manages to weave together the history, science, and personal stories of the Black Death in a way accessible to non-historians and those new to the subject. However, this book may frustrate historians, as it often relies on assumptions or made up stories for its emotional impact, and there is a constant personification of the Plague that does the history a disservice. It addresses the debate about the disease behind the plague quiet well.

The most complete account of the black plague out there. So complete, in fact, that most documentaries on the topic quote the author extensively. It really gives us moderns an appreciation for how the power of superstitious nonsense can exacerbate a terrible situation.

An interesting read; the author does a fantastic job making the times and the people appeal to the reader. Surprisingly entertaining for such a grim topic.

This book was just what it said it was, an intimate history of the Black Death. Wonderful details and human stories, and Kelly draws parallels with our world today and what coud happen given the ecological issues our planet is facing. Highly recommended and a grea companion read to Norman Cantor's "In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made". Read 'em both!

Excellent book. Well researched and haunting. It is a good mixture of fascinating narrative, anecdote, historical overview, and scientific updates. I learned a lot about the story of the Plague that hit Europe in the mid 1300s. Two especially interesting facts I learned was that 1) The plague set on shortly after global temperatures cooled off around 1300AD, and 2) That after the initial five years of carnage, it was only the beginning. The next few ceturies in Europe saw more recurring illness and plague than ever.

Recommended!

An extremely well told historical account of the Black Death, The Great Mortality was as impossible to put down as it was informative. John Kelly does a wonderful job of taking historical fact and weaving it into a book that reads as a well told story. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone interested in plague history.

If you want to learn a lot about the plague without having to delve through medical jargon, this is a great book. Written for the layman and highly interesting - I learned a lot. Example: part of the reason why the plague spread so quickly was not the rats, which is widely accepted, but the fleas on the rats. People half figured it out - they started destroying cats and dogs. So then there were more rats... geez. Hindsight.

So far I'm not impressed with Kelly's take on the Black Death. The author seems to have a poor understanding of disease mutations and consistently makes the mistake of describing the plague as having direction and intent. While it might be possible to excuse this as just a literary tool, he repeats the mistake often enough to make me believe that he really needs a biology refresher course, saying things such as, “…the bacillus has learned how to elude everything sent to kill it” and that the Plague bacteria appears to have been slapped together in a hurry to meet an evolutionary emergency. It’s just embarrassing when an author throws around scientific terminology and yet has no basic understanding of the underlying scientific theory. No one would excuse this sort of nonsense in a book about economic history, so it’s sad to see scientific ignorance given such a pass by other reviewers.

The author also constantly repeats himself and could not stop using the terms firewall, Malthusian dilemma, and surge year. Mostly he uses the Plague as a backdrop for lengthy tangents on basic Western European history and his pseudo-scientific theories on disease propagation.

Fascinating, non-linear treatment of a pivotal moment in European history. Puts today's problems in perspective.