The Black Death

“A magisterial history . . . takes the reader on a vivid tour . . . Asbridge evokes terror and pity by focusing in on what he calls ‘micro-histories.’ . . . [His] rich use of contemporary chronicles emphasizes people’s bafflement as well as horror.”—The Guardian

“Asbridge skillfully combines a global narrative of the plague with examples of horrendous personal tragedy to build a powerful portrait of a world that stared death in the face.”—The Times

“A gripping and authoritative global history of the plague . . . its impeccable, wide-ranging scholarship and its suitability for general readers make it an impressive achievement.”—Financial Times

“Terrific—and truly terrifying . . . Asbridge puts a human face—or rather multiple faces—on the Black Death, the most famous pandemic to have afflicted humankind prior to [the pandemic].”—Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C

“Comprehensive history of a devastating plague that stretched over centuries. . . . a capable work that, as modern readers will understand, underscores the fragility of societies in the face of pandemic.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A rich, multifaceted history that finally makes sense of the research that has shifted our picture of the Black Death so much over the last twenty years . . . Asbridge’s account of how the Black Death was finally identified reads like a detective novel. . . . Truly mind-opening history, on a global scale that makes you rethink what you thought you knew.”—Lyndal Roper, author of Martin Luther

“Thomas Asbridge does for the Black Death what John Keegan did for battle: evoking the feeling of being there, recapturing the experience of the sufferers and survivors. Admiring the flawless scholarship, in language that is lucid, vivid, uncluttered with theory and uninfected by jargon, I’d be tempted—if it weren’t too paradoxical—to say that he makes plague a pleasure.”—Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Millennium and Civilizations

“An up-to-the-hour work of scholarship that is at the same time a page turner: intimate stories of suffering, death and resilience are situated in large-scale social, cultural, and economic histories of the ravages of the Black Death as it spread across the globe. Asbridge’s definitive biography of Yersinia pestis, the germ that caused the world’s deadliest disease, is a masterpiece.”—Thomas Laqueur, author of The Work of the Dead

“This accessible and engaging global history of the Black Death takes readers on a grand tour of the plague’s ravages, revealing the lived experience both of the leading figures of the day and of ordinary men and women struggling to make sense of this calamity.”—John Aberth, author of The Black Death and Doctoring the Black Death