false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173757642m/324494.jpg 324494 5 A book chronicling one of the worst human disasters in recorded history really has no business being entertaining. But John Kelly's <I>The Great Mortality</I> is a page-turner despite its grim subject matter and graphic detail. Credit Kelly's animated prose and uncanny ability to drop his reader smack in the middle of the 14th century, as a heretofore unknown menace stalks Eurasia from "from the China Sea to the sleepy fishing villages of coastal Portugal [producing] suffering and death on a scale that, even after two world wars and twenty-seven million AIDS deaths worldwide, remains astonishing." Take Kelly's vivid description of London in the fall of 1348: "A nighttime walk across Medieval London would probably take only twenty minutes or so, but traversing the daytime city was a different matter.... Imagine a shopping mall where everyone shouts, no one washes, front teeth are uncommon and the shopping music is provided by the slaughterhouse up the road." Yikes, and that's before just about everything with a pulse starts dying and piling up in the streets, reducing the population of Europe by anywhere from a third to 60 percent in a few short years. In addition to taking readers on a walking tour through plague-ravaged Europe, Kelly heaps on the ancillary information and every last bit of it is captivating. We get a thorough breakdown of the three types of plagues that prey on humans; a detailed account of how the plague traveled from nation to nation (initially by boat via flea-infested rats); how floods (and the appalling hygiene of medieval people) made Europe so susceptible to the disease; how the plague triggered a new social hierarchy favoring women and the proletariat but also sparked vicious anti-Semitism; and especially, how the plague forever changed the way people viewed the church. Engrossing, accessible, and brimming with first-hand accounts drawn from the Middle Ages, <I>The Great Mortality</I> illuminates and inspires. History just doesn't get better than that. <I>--Kim Hughes</I> 597977 2005 The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time (P.S.) total:444|5:3|4:6|3:7|2:1|1:0| 444 1689 771 103 5 3 false false Sun Nov 30 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 05 10:43:05 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 01 12:33:11 -0800 2008
I was more than pleasantly surprised....more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 06:40:16 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 21 15:44:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 true false Thu Jan 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 14:13:48 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 15 14:46:21 -0800 2009 one more...]]> 5 0 false true Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 10:16:45 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 24 18:46:26 -0700 2009
It explained why the bulk o...more...]]> 4 2 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 06 01:35:05 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 02:01:52 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 06:33:34 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 06:43:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 17 20:33:16 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 20:30:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 13:35:33 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 13:27:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed May 13 14:43:01 -0700 2009 Wed May 13 14:43:01 -0700 2009 The Great Mortality is one of those works that proves there are some wonderful history books out there.[return][return]The Great Mortality is subtitled "An Intimate ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 17:59:50 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 18:02:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 21:56:01 -0700 2009 Tue May 12 10:42:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 05 14:31:49 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 12:50:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Dec 28 18:34:14 -0800 2008 Thu Apr 02 11:35:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Nov 02 06:47:13 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 05 04:57:07 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 16:45:44 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 03 07:30:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jun 27 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 15 19:56:06 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 16 08:24:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 13:00:38 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 10 22:53:21 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 05 11:35:26 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 11:39:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 12:37:30 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 19 09:38:59 -0700 2008
John Kel...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Feb 22 06:41:22 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 06:52:10 -0800 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=324494