Books on the Plague

[Queequeg]

Reading a book on the Plague-the Great Mortality by Kelly.  It's sensationalist, and a bit too focused on the (admittedly fascinating) drama of the period, and I don't think there's really been enough of an in-depth picture at the actual experience of having the plague yet, but it still is terrifying enough that I'm pretty sure this was the worst period in human history.  I can't even imagine the scale of the suffering, and all of the different forms of the disease-bubonic, septicemic, pneumonic-seem almost equally terrifying.  I couldn't imagine living with the disease for more than a few hours, and I'm really surprised there weren't more mass suicides on the onset of symptoms. 

Anyone know any other books on the subject?  Also interested in something on Syphilis. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Distant Mirror?

[The Brain]

Books, books on the Plague...

Nope, haven't read a book on the plague in years.

[crazy canuck]

Not the time period you are looking for but Justinian's Flea was a good read on the impact of plague on the Byzanteens.

[Valmy]

Not the time period you are looking for but Justinian's Flea was a good read on the impact of plague on the Byzanteens.

Pretty sure no Byzanteen has ever died to a plague.  NOt even in the shitty Balkan countries alot of them live in.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The Plague of Justinian was smallbox I believe.  It sounds like he is looking for info on the Black Death.

[The Brain]

The Plague of Justinian was smallbox I believe.

Ouch.

[crazy canuck]

Here is your chance to learn something on Languish.

The Emperor Justinian reunified Rome's fractured empire by defeating the Goths and Vandals who had separated Italy, Spain, and North Africa from imperial rule. In his capital at Constantinople he built the world's most beautiful building, married its most powerful empress, and wrote its most enduring legal code, seemingly restoring Rome's fortunes for the next five hundred years. Then, in the summer of 542, he encountered a flea. The ensuing outbreak of bubonic plague killed five thousand people a day in Constantinople and nearly killed Justinian himself.

In Justinian's Flea, William Rosen tells the story of history's first pandemic—a plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, left a path of victims from Ireland to Iraq, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, Rosen offers a sweeping narrative of one of the great hinge moments in history, one that will appeal to readers of John Kelly's The Great Mortality, John Barry's The Great Influenza, and Jared Diamond's Collapse.

http://www.amazon.com/Justinians-Flea-Plague-Empire-Europe/dp/0670038555

[Darth Wagtaros]

He could not have held on to the West.  Even with Belisarius.  And I'ev read that the wars nearly depopulated Italy.

[MadImmortalMan]

Distant Mirror?

I second this one.

[crazy canuck]

He could not have held on to the West.  Even with Belisarius.  And I'ev read that the wars nearly depopulated Italy.

Says the guy who thought there was no plague...

[The Brain]

He could not have held on to the West.  Even with Belisarius.  And I'ev read that the wars nearly depopulated Italy.

Says the guy who thought there was no plague...

"Plague" is inclusive. As long as smallbox is a virulent and dangerous disease he's fine.

[Darth Wagtaros]

He could not have held on to the West.  Even with Belisarius.  And I'ev read that the wars nearly depopulated Italy.

Says the guy who thought there was no plague...

I said there was a p;lague. I had thought it was smallbox, not the bubonic plague.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I was wrong.

[Eddie Teach]

Anyone know any other books on the subject?  Also interested in something on Syphilis.

I hope you're not self-medicating.