The Black Death and the Transformation of the West
by David Herlihy, Samuel Kline Cohn (Editor)
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The Black Death was the great watershed in medieval history. In this compact book, David Herlihy makes bold yet subtle and subversive inquiries that challenge historical thinking about this disastrous period. As in a finely tuned detective story, he upturns intriguing bits of epidemiological evidence. And, looking beyond the view of the Black Death as unmitigated catastrophe, Herlihy sees in it the birth of technological advance as societies struggled to create labor-saving devices in the show more wake of population losses. New evidence for the plague's role in the establishment of universities, the spread of Christianity, the dissemination of vernacular cultures, and even the rise of nationalism demonstrates that this cataclysmic event marked a true turning point in history. show lessTags
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A good, short review (~200 pages) of the Black Death of the late 1340's, written in 1985. Herlihy makes the point that the actual culprit microbe is unknown. It could be Y. pestis, or it could be cholera. Some people spoke of buboes, while others of lenticulae, or freckles.
He also hypothesizes that the plague mothered inventions, including the printing press, brought on a distrust of experts, doctors, and Jews, intensified the use of capital, the use of of Christian Saints' names, ended feudalism and ended medievalism.
He also hypothesizes that the plague mothered inventions, including the printing press, brought on a distrust of experts, doctors, and Jews, intensified the use of capital, the use of of Christian Saints' names, ended feudalism and ended medievalism.
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Best Books About Plagues and Epidemics
99 works; 17 members
Author Information
18+ Works 1,371 Members
David V. Herlihy is the author of Bicycle: The History, winner of the 2004 Award for Excellence in the History-of Science. He is a leading authority in his field, and his work has appeared in a wide variety of magazines.
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Black Death and the Transformation of the West
- Original publication date
- 1997
- Important events
- Black Death
- First words
- The Black Death of 1348 and 1349, and the recurrent epidemics of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, were the most devastating natural disasters ever to strike Europe.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 292
- Popularity
- 110,658
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.62)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 3
