[.uk] In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World ... (ISBN 0684857359)

Amazon.com Review:
One-third of Western Europe's population died between 1348 and 1350, victims of the Black Death. Noted medievalist Norman Cantor tells the story of the pandemic and its widespread effects in In the Wake of the Plague. After giving an overview, Cantor describes various theories about the medical crisis, from contemporary fears of a Jewish conspiracy to poison the water (and the resulting atrocities against European Jews) to a growing belief among modern historians that both bubonic plague and anthrax caused the spiraling death rates. Cantor also details ways in which the Black Death changed history, at both the personal level (family lines dying out) and the political (the Plantagenet kings may well have been able to hold onto France had their resources not been so diminished). Cantor veers from topic to topic, from dynastic worries to the Dance of Death, and from peasants' rights to Perpendicular Gothic. This makes for amusing reading, though those seeking an orderly narrative may be frustrated. He also seems overly concerned with rumors of homosexual behavior, and his attempt to link the savage method of Edward II's murder to a cooling in global weather is a bit farfetched. Cantor wears his considerable scholarship lightly, but includes a very useful critical biography for further reading. While not an entry-level text on the Black Death, In the Wake of the Plague will interest readers looking for a broader interpretation of its consequences. --Sunny Delaney

Interesting, but uneven:
This is an interesting book about one of the direst slice of history. In just three years (1347 - 1350), the Plague will have wiped out over a third of Western Europe. Some countries incurred lesser but significant recurrence of the plague centuries later, including England in 1665. England will recover its pre-plague population level not until 1750 or four centuries later. Gathering material from the scientific literature, the author shares that the Plague was a pandemic associated with two different diseases. The first one is the bubonic plague we all know associated with in chronological order: fever, black buboes, diarrhea, vomiting, and finally death by respiratory failure. This incubation took two weeks. But, historical accounts uncovered a second and different disease that killed in just four days without fever or buboes. Historians believed this second disease was a transmitted cattle disease: anthrax. This second disease accounts for the rapid spread of the Plague northward at a speed that defies how the bubonic plague alone could have been transmitted (mainly through black rats). Scientists uncovered a rare gene mutant that would have been present and protected some of the European survivors from the Plague. This same gene present in 15% of Western European Caucasians today protects against HIV/AIDS. In 1340, 60% of Western Europe's wealth and all its political power were held by just 300 families. They were all multi-billionaires in today's money. By the next generation, the Plague had created a huge labor shortage in farming in rural areas. The much lower surviving population gave much leverage to the peasants who became desperately needed by the "billionaires" and monasteries to work the arable land. This lead to the abolition of serfdom and the onset of flexible labor markets associated with competitive contractual wages and labor mobility. This preceded the upcoming agricultural and industrial revolution. The third chapter describes how foreign policy at the time was often waged by arranging marriages between monarchies of different countries. In this case, a 15 year old British princess, Joan Plantagenet, was to marry Prince Pedro from Castile. This was a way for her father King Edward III to eventually annex Castile to England. They were to wed in Bordeaux. Princess Joan became one of the Plague's victims. And, the course of British foreign policy was affected forever. At the time, women had a much accelerated life span. They got married and gave birth in their mid teens. They hit menopause at 30 (so the author says on page 42). And, their life span was very often shortened by death during childbirth. Aristocratic men often engaged in serial marriages not so much because of infidelities but because of high female mortality. The men died in their mid forties because of disease or through battles. Climate change did contribute to the Plague's devastation. The climate went through a cooling period that lasted until the 15th century. It impacted crops, diet, health, and caused bouts of famines in the 1320s. With compromised health, populations could not withstand the Plague. Chapter 5 focuses on the impact of Thomas Bradwardine, clergyman and Oxford University academic, being victim of the Plague in 1349. Bradwardine was a world class scientist who advocated the separation of science and religion. He believed space was infinite with many other worlds similar to ours. He may have been on the way to uncover the scientific method within the Western World. His progress, however, were not advanced enough to leave a trace within the history of science. This is because algebra was still too primitive. Calculus did not exist. And, instruments of observations from the microscope to the telescope also did not exist. The author feels that the Plague stopped Bradwardine from revolutionizing the science of his day. This is utopian because Bradwardine was already 59 upon his death, much beyond the age when geniuses develop break through concepts. Also, the scientific method had been developed by Ibn al-Haytham at the turn of the first millennium over 300 years before Bradwardine's related cogitations. For much in depth study on this subject, I recommend A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future Other chapters cover equally interesting subjects. The Plague apparently accelerated the development in England of real estate and estate law as marriages, deaths, inheritances were the major factors in accumulating wealth through land ownership. The body of law developed at the time still represents a foundation of contemporary British laws. The chapter on the Jewish Conspiracy is also interesting. Under torture, Jews admitted to having spread the Plague by poisoning the wells of cities. In turn, they were often rounded up and burned. They were also often sequestered in their own quarters. The latter, although poverty stricken, were reasonably clean and much less rat infested than the remainder of the cities. As a result, Jews survival rate was much higher and the European Christian anti-Semitic population further demonized them because of it. The last three chapters expand on some of the more far fetched explanations of the Plague and also on the Plague's implication on the course of history. Those chapters lack direction as the author often does not clearly justifies what are the best explanations of the Plague's cause or ultimate historical implications. The author conveys much information about epidemiology and history of pandemics. I recommend a much better book on the subject Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease

Interesting Information In A Muddled Narrative.:
"In The Wake Of The Plague" is a curious book by Norman F. Cantor where a lot of fascinating information is found in a muddle narrative. Those looking for a defenitive history of the Black Death will be frustrated by this book which is a little misleading in its presentation, it isn't so much about the plague itself as it is about the actual lifestyles and various events which surrounded the horrific event. For a real chronicle of the plague itself and a more lush, clear narrative, John Kelly's "The Great Mortality" is a wonderful recent work. Cantor is obviously an expert on the Middle Ages and knows his history well, the problem with "In The Wake Of The Plague" is that it jumbles together bits and pieces of history, some interesting, some just extra filler, in an effort to bring up questions and give us a tour of the plague stricken world of Medieval Europe. Although Cantor is trying to make a work accessible to the general reader, the material can still feel dense and the reader will find his or herself lost in a labyrinth of facts and figures. There are passages where Cantor veers completely off course, in trying to inform us, he loses our interest by diverting from the plague and instead going into fine details about certain wine brands which were born at the time, wool production and complex family histories involving the royal family of England. To be fair, there are some fascinating moments in the book, including moments where Cantor looks into the social upheavals of the time including a Peasant revolt of 1381 where a Christian Socialist state was almost established. Some details about how the plague affected the religious order of the time are also valuable. Interestingly enough, some readers will be surprised to find that some of the most fascinating parts of the book have little to do with the plague, but more with modern observations concerning bio-warfare and our own society's weakness in the face of a possible future outbreak. "In The Wake Of The Plague" sometimes feels like bits and pieces of other books glued together to make one book on a different subject. Some passages feel more suitable for a general Medieval history while others feel better positioned for a book on chemical warfare or even global warming. In trying to cover so much, Cantor gives us very little.

The most poorly written book I have ever read.:
This is the only book I have started and decided I could no longer read. It is the most poorly written book I have ever come across - and I read a lot. Life is too short to waste on writing like this: unless you're a high school teacher grading a junior history essay.

Skip this or die of boredom:
I started this book after having read "Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World". I was continuing with a history book because I had so thoroughly enjoyed Weatherford's. What a disappointment. I can't even finish this book. It is full of incidental stories that make you wonder why he's telling you these things? Worse, you never find out why. The book never seems to get to the point and the stories along the way are far from captivating or enlightening.

Black Death:
This is an obvious attack on rats. If you notice the funding for the book, it's from big exterminator companies who want to make people fear rats. Rats get a bad rap, they're blamed for starting the plague (it was actually fleas), are thought of as dirty, repugnant, hoarding creatures and are hunted for their fur. I'm no big fan of rats but I met a guy in Russia who loved and studied them (unfortunately he was bitten by a rabid one and died of fever later). He taught me that rats are just animals in the diverse natural world. He lived with thousands of them and they were very lovable. Of course he wasn't the best smelling guy. He even gave me an albino rat, who later was crushed in my bag when it was mishandled on the train. Books like this are not doing rats any favors so please keep an open mind and a big piece of cheese for them.