The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
- 27 September 2023
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Synopsis
The Great Mortality:
“Powerful, rich with details, moving, humane, and full of important lessons for an age when weapons of mass destruction are loose among us.” — Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb
The Great Plague is one of the most compelling events in human history—even more so now, when the notion of plague has never loomed larger as a contemporary public concern.
The plague that devastated Asia and Europe in the 14th century has been of never-ending interest to both scholarly and general readers. Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story: how many people died; how farm output and trade declined. But statistics can’t convey what it was like to sit in Siena or Avignon and hear that a thousand people a day are dying two towns away. Or to have to chose between your own life and your duty to a mortally ill child or spouse. Or to live in a society where the bonds of blood and sentiment and law have lost all meaning, where anyone can murder or rape or plunder anyone else without fear of consequence.
In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.
Editorial Review
“John Kelly gives the reader a ferocious, pictorial account of the horrific ravages of [the] plague…an emotionally accessible narrative, animated by wrenchingly vivid tableaus and alarming first-hand witness accounts. . . that give the reader an intimate sense of day-to-day life in medieval Europe.” — Michiko Kakutani, New York Times
“Splendidly written. Kelly has written a popular history based on the best scholarship available, and written it very well indeed.” — Detroit Free Press (4 out of 4 stars)
“A fascinating account of the plague that swept Europe and Asia in the 14th century, killing about half the population. It’s a frightening reminder of what could happen today.” — Nelson DeMille, The Birmingham News
“Stunning. . . . Kelly combines distinguished scholarship in the science, medicine and European history [and] meets some of the world’s darkest days as if he were a forensic sleuth who must first re-create the ambience of the victims’ world before tracking down their deaths. He endows The Great Mortality with the sheer immediacy ancient history yields to only a few.” — Houston Chronicle
“John Kelly combines the skills of a medical writer with those of a historian . . . [he] offers an insightful and rather frightening exploration of medieval medicine. Exhaustively researched and relying largely on accounts of those who lived through the Black Death, Kelly’s narrative offers us an intimate exploration of a world falling apart.” — San Francisco Chronicle
“Timely and welcome . . . conveys in excruciating but necessary detail a powerful sense of just how terribly Europe suffered, and just how resilient it was in the face of what seemed to many certain extinction.” — Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
“It’s almost unethical to write a book on human cataclysm as entertaining as The Great Mortality. Strange that a book about the worst natural disaster in European history should be so full of life. This book may be written in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman but there is a seething vitality here that is Kelly’s alone.” — Minneapolis Star Tribune
Genre: Non-Fiction
Age Range: Adult
Start Rating: 4.5 stars
Publication Date: 31st January 2006
ISBN13:978-0060006938
Author: John Kelly
John Kelly
John Kelly is the author of the highly praised bestseller THE GREAT MORTALITY, about the Black Death of 1348, and the acclaimed THE GRAVES ARE WALKING, about the Irish famine of the mid-19th century, as well as NEVER SURRENDER, his praised previous book about the beginning of World War II. He has written extensively about medicine, history, and psychology. He lives in New York City.
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Luciano Anastasi
Luciano is the founder of the MedievalHistory platform and the LinkedIn History Enthusiasts Group, where he is dedicated to curating and sharing high-quality medieval history content. His goal is to engage scholars, teachers, students, and enthusiasts by fostering insightful discussions and promoting scholarly resources on topics from medieval warfare and religion to societal transformations and daily life in the Middle Ages.
Luciano is also an active book reviewer, focusing on academic publications related to medieval history. He recently collaborated with Yale University Press to review forthcoming medieval history titles, aiming to deepen educators' and researchers' understanding of the period. Alongside his history endeavors, he has over 40 years of experience in IT leadership roles across various industries, including the public sector, banking, insurance, airlines and consulting, and has contributed to United Nations projects.
With a Master of Arts in Business Process Management, Luciano combines his expertise in IT strategy and governance with his passion for medieval history. He leverages technology to bridge the academic community and the wider public, making historical scholarship more accessible through engaging online content.
