The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time

Contemporary Review, July, 2005

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death. John Kelly Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]18.99. xix 364 pages. ISBN 0-00-715069-5. The Black Death or bubonic plague which devastated Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the fourteenth century was 'the greatest natural disaster in human history'.

In parts of Europe, between 30 and 60 per cent of the population perished along with many animals. It produced great examples of selfless charity and cruel selfishness: it saw mankind at its best and its worst. This book is a history of that plague and of the way in which it affected individual people and societies. Mr Kelly discusses the pros and cons of the argument that the Black Death was not a 'plague pandemic' but something caused by a disease. Whilst the accounts are dramatic and moving, the author's generalised conclusions are sometimes rather sweeping. Three examples suffice: 'As the population declined, the character of medieval society began to change' or 'in the fifty years after the Black Death, the medieval world's traditional economic winners and losers exchanged places' or 'women were also significant economic winners in the new social order'. (R.G.C.)