The opportunities in adversity

As the bubonic plague hung over Europe in the mid-14th Century, it must have been difficult to imagine any associated blessings. But that’s just what the late Norman F. Cantor proposed in his book, In The Wake Of the Plague: The Black Death and The World It Made.

Cantor wrote that the devastation caused the demise of the Dark Ages, and made way for a new, enlightened order. Cantor argues that, “the Black Death heralded an intellectual revolution.” He is talking about The Reformation, The Renai...