Black Death 1346-1353: The Complete History

The best introduction to the terrible international impact of the Black Death.Unique, sensational and shocking, this revelatory book provides the best overview of the Europe-wide history of the Black Death. The author's painstakingly comprehensive research throws fresh light on the nature of the disease, its origin, its spread, on an almost day-to-day basis, across Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East and North Africa, its mortality rate and its impact on history. These latter two aspects are of central importance here, for it is demonstrated that the plague's death rates have consistently been under-estimated and that they were in fact much higher, making the disease's long-term effects on history even more profound. First paperback edition published 2006. OLE J. BENEDICTOW is Professor of History at the University of Oslo.

Benedictow's book is highly recommended. It is well written and accompanied by many helpful maps and tables of data., The thoroughness and precision of [Benedictow's] research are admirable. [...] Opens a treasure trove of correct information. There is no doubt that [the book] should be acquired by all university libraries., Every library that covers population studies, epistemology, or medieval history should have a copy of Benedictow's book., A book which should be on every Late-Medievalist's bookshelf. It is packed with valuable and well-considered accounts. ... A wonderful compilation of data which will be widely used for many years to come., [This] remarkable, engrossing and controversial study is the first to assemble and synthesize historical data from every region in which the Black Death wrought havoc. [...] An immense and entirely breathtaking feat of scholarship...and a moving quest to account for a cruel phenomenon.

OLE J. BENEDICTOW is Professor of History at the University of Oslo.