THE BLACK DEATH

Comprehensive history of a devastating plague that stretched over centuries.

The outbreak of the Black Death, as it was known in England, has long been ascribed to a horrific siege in 1347 of a Genoese trade outpost in Crimea on the part of a Mongol army. Its commander, tired of catapulting rocks against the walls, instead launched the corpses of victims of “dreadful miasma” inside the walls. From there, writes University of London historian Asbridge, the plague spread quickly along trade routes into the Mediterranean, then up the Atlantic Coast of Europe, and then, most destructively, inland, reaching into every corner of the known world. Asbridge contributes to this well-known history in several ways. First, he notes that the plague was more devastating in Egypt and the Near East than anywhere else, in part because “according to orthodox Islamic dogma, the pestilence was not actually contagious, because those afflicted were selected by Allah,” and Muslims were forbidden to flee. Even Mecca and Medina, supposed safe harbors, were afflicted. The Scots felt the same way about God’s hand on the hated English, it appears, because a Scottish army attempted to invade England, only to be visited by a “monstrous death” that felled 5,000 soldiers overnight. Asbridge’s second contribution is to attempt to sort out the number of deaths worldwide, examining medieval accounts against modern scholars who have held that the figures are exaggerated. He suggests that the figure “must have been in excess of 100 million,” an appalling number that helps explain why the social order was overturned around the world, aiding the rise of both Protestantism and the Ottoman Empire, among many other manifestations. Finally, Asbridge, in a clear but too-long exposition, adduces the evidence for what the Black Death actually was and makes a convincing case for—well, read the book.

A capable work that, as modern readers will understand, underscores the fragility of societies in the face of pandemic.