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

I have always been interested in the Bubonic Plague. Vast number

I have always been interested in the Bubonic Plague. Vast numbers of individuals were brutally killed by an organism so minuscule, that they had no idea it was murdering their friends and family. The bacteria meant for rats, Yersinia pestis, altered the course of human history. It became one of the first known forms of biological warfare, when during times of war, the dead victims of the plague were catapulted into the enemies territory in order to infect the soldiers. Children’s nursery rhymes, such as Ring Around the Rosie, were also created during this time. Like everything in history this catastrophic event is still influencing our society centuries later. John Kelly did an incredible job explaining the details of the Black Plague. He was able to tell the facts while also keeping the reader entertained by using first hand accounts of the people who lived through it. The compilation of their writings tell an unimaginable tale.
Learning about the Black Death helps me to think of my own studies on viruses. While we can now cure most viruses with antibiotics, we are rapidly coming to a time where they have resistant strains. Viruses are as well eluding a cure in a way that is terrifying. If like the people of the middle ages, we do not fully understand what is happening if an outbreak erupts, then we will most likely suffer the same fate they did and lose over half our population. It is a perspective that makes me wonder at the power of nature. Through my studies, I hope to help rid the world of these elusive and ever changing silent killers once and for all.

All the gory details!

I'm on chapter 2, but the introduction alone was fascinating. Finally a entertaining & intellectual recollection of the Great Death.

Morbid, Gross, Enthralling and Fascinating

Kelly spares no detail throughout the entire book. His side stories cover the rich, the poor, the most terrible sort of people and villians, and the Mother Theresa's of the plague. Its rarely dry, and hard to put down- yet if you do, it can be hard to pick up again for the shere fact that being constantly confronted with that much human suffering is difficult. Its hard to imagine that much terror at a namesless death, and its something we fear so much in our own time. Kelly paints a portrait of the plague experience, and you are truly implanted into that callous world. You will learn so much by reading this book, about life in that time, how the plague was truly spread, and so much about human nature.

I would recommend this book to
-tragedians -historians -people interested in current affairs -teachers -pschologists

A reviewer

Not only is this book a thorough history of the plague that devastated Europe in the 14th century, it is extremely readable. I couldn't put it down, and I didn't really expect that from a book about such a serious topic.

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