The Black Death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, takingmillion lives. And y...
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reviews
Jan 04, 2011
Osho
rated it: 
I really enjoy books about the rise and spread of diseases and their effects on politics and culture. I read Hans Zinsser's Rats, Lice, and History at a young age; even as a child I recognized the skillfulness and clarity of his writing. Alas, Cantor's In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made is disorganized, repetitive, tangential, and unskillful. If a student handed it in as a manuscript, I'd hand it back with the request that s/he outline her work first. I am not exagg
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(18 people liked it)
Sep 08, 2008
Schnaucl
rated it: 
The focus of this book was primarily upon the effects of the Black Death (as you might guess from the title).
Cantor did talk about possible causes of the Plague mostly in the beginning and end of the book. The current theory seems to be the Y. Pestis carried by black rats with a simultaneous outbreak of Anthrax contracted from sick cattle. Apparently black rats are very slow moving and generally have a very limited range of travel so while it is quite possible they carried the fl More...
Cantor did talk about possible causes of the Plague mostly in the beginning and end of the book. The current theory seems to be the Y. Pestis carried by black rats with a simultaneous outbreak of Anthrax contracted from sick cattle. Apparently black rats are very slow moving and generally have a very limited range of travel so while it is quite possible they carried the fl More...
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Jul 28, 2007
Christina
rated it:
I found this book very different from my expectations but nonetheless fascinating. It does not spend as much time on the progression and details of the black plague's spread as it does on the historical and socialogical import and impact of the plague on Europe--which was catastrophic and world order changing in its scope! The author explores the origins and possible spread theories of the plague, which are imperfectly explained by the most popular 'rat infestation' alone. I was surprised.. a
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Jan 03, 2009
Bill
rated it: 
Though good, the book never addresses the fascinating biomedical puzzles of the great plague posed in the introduction. For example, if the plague was carried by rats aboard ships, why did it spread as rapidly through the landlocked countryside as through port cities? The author claims that some cases of plague may actually have been anthrax, but never substantiates this theory.
Plague fun fact: did you know that 10% of plague victims developed buboes intra-abdominaly, and not on thei More...
Plague fun fact: did you know that 10% of plague victims developed buboes intra-abdominaly, and not on thei More...
Aug 04, 2011
Priscilla
rated it: 
Cantor took a fascinating subject and basically threw away all the options he had to be interesting and craft a narrative with impact. His writing is basically what you'd expect from an academic (i.e., NOT a writer) trying to write for the popular market - he tries to engage the reader with stories and specific examples, only to lead you down a lot of irrelevant tangents, or to pique your interest and then never return to finish a subject he's opened. He's not even a very good writer, mechanic
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Nov 25, 2010
Alchymyst
rated it:
I could not get over the impression that the author was really disappointed and angry at medieval people for being, well, so medieval. How could they not understand that scientific method is king and the only way to combat the plague? How dared they rely on prayers and quarantine? Why did they 'waste' their knowledge of chemistry on alchemy (what he means by that rather silly statement anyway is unclear to me)? It's just a very odd attitude for a historian to take, I think. Obviously they didn't
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 21, 2010
SmarterLilac
rated it:
I love this smart, incisive, original take on the impact of the Black Plague on, well, pretty much everything. The Plague's lingering residue is still underrecognized. (I sometimes think the root of all evil really is hooked into the first wave of bubonic plague in Europe in the 14th century.)
Cantor's language is remarkably accessible; he is one of the few writers I've encountered who can strike that enviable balance between the vernacular and academic. The information he dug up abou More...
Cantor's language is remarkably accessible; he is one of the few writers I've encountered who can strike that enviable balance between the vernacular and academic. The information he dug up abou More...
Jul 25, 2009
Debbie (Readerbuzz)
rated it:
I've always been intrigued with the
Black Plague so I was thrilled to receive
this book from a fellow BCer. Then I
read several bad reviews of the book.
I am happy to say that this book is
much better than the reviews I'd read
had led me to believe. Details of life
just before and during th More...
Black Plague so I was thrilled to receive
this book from a fellow BCer. Then I
read several bad reviews of the book.
I am happy to say that this book is
much better than the reviews I'd read
had led me to believe. Details of life
just before and during th More...
Jul 19, 2010
Noah
rated it:
This book has it's moments, but I'll go ahead and admit I did not finish the book for a couple reasons:
To fully give justice to a very epic title such as this, the book is not nearly long enough as it should. And given the plague has brought upon immense cultural changes to the human race, it feels as if they've only scratched the surface of what the plague has done for humanity.
Though full of very interesting facts, much of the information appears quite biased, namely s More...
To fully give justice to a very epic title such as this, the book is not nearly long enough as it should. And given the plague has brought upon immense cultural changes to the human race, it feels as if they've only scratched the surface of what the plague has done for humanity.
Though full of very interesting facts, much of the information appears quite biased, namely s More...
Jun 21, 2011
Lauren
rated it:
Much of what we know about the greatest medical disaster ever, the Black Plague of the fourteenth century, is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the final, awful end by respiratory failure are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was, and how it made history, remain shrouded in a haze of myths.
Norman Cantor, the premier historian of the Middle Ages, draws together the most recent sci More...
Norman Cantor, the premier historian of the Middle Ages, draws together the most recent sci More...
Mar 07, 2009
Todd
rated it:
I had this book sitting on my bookshelf from a college class I took on the history of death and dying. When I took the class I never got around to reading it so I decided to pick it up and give it a shot...
An interesting read, which focuses highly on the political, social, economic, and religious changes spawned by the Black Death outbreaks in Medieval Europe.
I'm not sure how useful/enjoyable this book would be to someone who is not familiar with Medieval European histo More...
An interesting read, which focuses highly on the political, social, economic, and religious changes spawned by the Black Death outbreaks in Medieval Europe.
I'm not sure how useful/enjoyable this book would be to someone who is not familiar with Medieval European histo More...
Dec 09, 2011
Kaitlyn
rated it:
I'm doing a research paper on the Black Death...actually, a historiography... Anyway, I read lots of great reviews on this one, so I actually bought a copy for cheap on Amazon to read it. I suppose Cantor is a somewhat interesting writer (quite interesting for a historian), however, it was lacking a certain something. Don't get me wrong, Cantor deserves some credit and there were some interesting bits in it; I particularly found it interesting that he included the Ring Around the Rosies poem and
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Aug 18, 2007
Jon
rated it:
The most impressive part of the book was the final chapter -- the conclusions and potential theories put forward were incredibly interesting (I had never considered "stardust"). At times it seemed that the author was drifting into more of a sermon about medieval history, but in the end most of the details were necessary for some of the interpretation put forward in the conclusion.
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Jul 31, 2011
Tom
rated it:
This book is pretty terrible. I gave it two stars, as opposed to one, because it is clear that he knows a fair amount about the Middle Ages. He didn't earn any more than two because 1) it's clear that he knows very little about the Bubonic Plague and 2) he doesn't make very many strong connections about how the plague impacted the world.
Most of his focus is on England and not the rest of Europe. He goes off on tangents about the English royal family 3 generations before the plague.
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Most of his focus is on England and not the rest of Europe. He goes off on tangents about the English royal family 3 generations before the plague.
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May 21, 2010
Aloysiusweasley
rated it:
Terrible. As someone who is keenly interested in both the time period as well as communicable disease, I found this book horribly biased (author frequently feels the need to comment on people of the time in often derogatory ways, particularly those of the ruling class), badly written, and could not even stomach finishing it more than halfway, when I can count the number of books I've put down unfinished on two hands. It jumps around like a scared rabbit in no particular order, and to be frank, i
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Dec 21, 2008
Sarah
rated it:
Frankly, I was disappointed. I had high hopes for this book. I am fascinated by the Black Death and interested in the author's theory that the Black Death was actually a combination of the plague and anthrax. This is not a theory I had heard much about. Rather than enhancing my understanding of his hypothesis, it left me without answers or substantiation of this cutting edge theory.
Rather than the story of the plague itself, it seemed the relative merits of the economic feudal syste More...
Rather than the story of the plague itself, it seemed the relative merits of the economic feudal syste More...
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Jan 25, 2011
Tara
rated it:
The hypothesis on which Norman F. Cantor bases his book – In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death & the World It Made – is sound. That the Black Plague swept across Europe and performed a kind of natural selection that set the course of history is indisputable. Cantor manages to also make it completely uninteresting. Almost immediately the book falls into a pattern of “because this person died of the Black Death, that person came into power”. And while this is all probably true, men and women
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Dec 16, 2009
Leah
rated it:
really fascinating book that takes a look at what The Black Death did to medieval society and how it really shaped the world we live in today. It also talks about the possible causes as it's clear that there was more than just the bubonic plague at work.
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Jul 29, 2011
Dave/Maggie
rated it:
For a professor of medieval history, Cantor f***s up by the numbers every now and then. Infuriatingly enough, he seems to expect a free pass. Rank hath its privileges, I suppose.
Example: Cantor barfs up a few obligatory (and thusly forgivable -- any popular work on the Middle Ages simply must mention knights in jingling hauberks, gleaming plate etc., or risk selling like bacon in Medina) references to medieval weapons, armor, and siege machinery. Beyond their utter irrelevance, his " More...
Example: Cantor barfs up a few obligatory (and thusly forgivable -- any popular work on the Middle Ages simply must mention knights in jingling hauberks, gleaming plate etc., or risk selling like bacon in Medina) references to medieval weapons, armor, and siege machinery. Beyond their utter irrelevance, his " More...
Jun 01, 2007
Jennifer
rated it: 
A good book and a quick read, given the subject matter. Cantor engagingly details how the Black Death profoundly influenced the direction of European politics (and hence, Western and world politics).
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Oct 03, 2009
Lisa
rated it:
At times meandering and a bit random, with only the slightest link to the plague and its aftermath. Although the link between the plague and pages-long illustrative examples of its impact on one esoteric family or another usually ultimately become clear, I actually wanted more direct discussion of the epidemic itself. Between the author's periodic heavy-handed judgments (and possible homophobia?) and the amount of time spent at the end arguing that the plague came from outer space, I didn't quit
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Jun 10, 2011
Nicolle
rated it:
Of all of Norman Cantor's books about the Middle Ages, this is by far the worst! Cantor was once a decent (though never great) medieval historian, but that time has long past. This book is not only poorly written/edited, but it is also wildly inaccurate. Its clear that the intended audience of this book is the general public and it is not for a specialist, but that does not make it acceptable to sensationalize/misrepresent facts in the guise of making the subject more interesting or more acce
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Jan 19, 2012
Monica
rated it:
Oh alas. One of the great medievalists of the 20th century succumbs to his own publicity and writes on a subject outside his field.
Look, this would be a lovely little history book if not for Cantor's embracing a crackpot theory that the plague came from outer space. Really. He adopts this nutzoid idea from books written by two other scholars writing outside their fields.
Fortunately, most of the book is vignettes of life in the 14th century where Cantor is on firm ground. More...
Look, this would be a lovely little history book if not for Cantor's embracing a crackpot theory that the plague came from outer space. Really. He adopts this nutzoid idea from books written by two other scholars writing outside their fields.
Fortunately, most of the book is vignettes of life in the 14th century where Cantor is on firm ground. More...
Aug 26, 2010
Alison
rated it:
Reading this book was like being ranted at by your vaguely senile, overeducated grandfather about a time period in history that you're also an expert on, a fact which he chooses to ignore. I don't need to be told "at this time, the English believed that kings were divinely anointed." Duh.
I didn't care for this book at all. The author is clearly an expert, but he seems to think that randomly insulting the British royalty counts as biting, witty humor. It was also disorganiz More...
I didn't care for this book at all. The author is clearly an expert, but he seems to think that randomly insulting the British royalty counts as biting, witty humor. It was also disorganiz More...
Dec 24, 2008
Jess
rated it:
Social and Medical history.
Learn what happened to europe when people stopped 'bringing out their dead' en masse. 25% of humanity later, it changed everything.
Fun book tidbit: they now think that Anthrax was a major player around the same time as the Bubonic plague. The Black Death was called so because of the buboes that it produced that turned black. It could take up to 14 days to kill you. There were multiple instances of people dying in a much shorter number of days sa More...
Learn what happened to europe when people stopped 'bringing out their dead' en masse. 25% of humanity later, it changed everything.
Fun book tidbit: they now think that Anthrax was a major player around the same time as the Bubonic plague. The Black Death was called so because of the buboes that it produced that turned black. It could take up to 14 days to kill you. There were multiple instances of people dying in a much shorter number of days sa More...
Oct 16, 2011
Torrey
rated it:
After reviewing this book for an undergrad history course (not by choice), I thought I would revisit it as more of a "fun" book--a decision I regret.
The most that can be said for this book is that it does contain some interesting factoids about the time period, which succeed in partially fleshing out the social life of the Middle Ages. For the uneducated layman, it does provide some introduction to the Black Death.
Unfortunately, the author looms large in this bo More...
The most that can be said for this book is that it does contain some interesting factoids about the time period, which succeed in partially fleshing out the social life of the Middle Ages. For the uneducated layman, it does provide some introduction to the Black Death.
Unfortunately, the author looms large in this bo More...
May 14, 2009
Jesse
rated it:
I was disappointed with this, being a fan of Cantor's previous scholarship. Compared to his other works this felt rushed and haphazardly thrown together, and the lack of cohesion hampered the work as whole. The experience was more akin to attending a series of hastily prepared and poorly structured lectures by a learned expert rather than reading a carefully written book. Jumpy is a fair word for the main problem of this text, which intelligently addresses some of the ramifications and fallout o
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May 16, 2011
Dana
rated it:
My high hopes for this book were dashed early on, but I kept plugging away until I just couldn't take it anymore. 160 pages in, less than 70 pages to go til the end, and I had to give up. Cantor's writing style was terrible, and he came across as a stuck-up academic who probably talks all the time just to enjoy the sound of his own voice. Throughout the book he cracked haughty jokes, explained very obvious things while leaving more obscure and mysterious things unexplained, and went off on one e
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May 08, 2011
Lara
rated it:
t's a good blend of science and history, something I always enjoy. Although it was interesting to note that he put in the "Ring Around the Rosie" as a plague tale, which is now discounted by folklorists. So far the science has sounded pretty good, which is interesting, since the author is a medievalist and not a scientist. It was an interesting book, but kind of wandered all over the place. I wish some parts were more in-depth, while others may have been too much so. Still, it presente
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Jul 04, 2011
Maria
rated it:
This book did the impossible; it made the black plague boring. I found Cantor's writing to be rambling, overly tangential, and full of unnecessary and DISTRACTING personal commentary. I learned more about the English royal family in the 14th century and international politics than I did about the Black Plague. And while it was interesting, it was not what prompted me to get the book. Perspective readers beware, you will learn many interesting things from this book, but its relevance to the plagu
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