The Black Death: A Global History Of Humanity's Most Devastating Pandemic, by Thomas Asbridge
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This is honestly not my era—or area—of history, but the promise of a more global overview of the Black Death, and one that didn’t only focus on Europe, intrigued me enough to pick this book up. And I’m glad I did. This was a very good overview of the Black Death, and also a very approachable read, that I think even people who don’t read much history or non-fiction will have an easy time digesting. It also never got too technical with medical explanations, which I appreciated, because my eyes would have probably glazed over...
Now I will say, I do have a pet peeve with non-fiction books where authors say things like “probably this happened” or “this person probably thought this” etc etc… And though it’s far from egregious, this book does do this a few times. Which, hey, may not bother some people, but is a pet peeve of mine. As well, I wish this had been as global an overview as I was expecting. I understand from reading there’s not as much documentation about the Black Death further east, but there isn’t a complete lack either, and I wish we had looked at that a little more. But I don’t think those flaws are nearly enough to say this isn’t a good book. It very much is. Made all the more interesting by living in a post-Covid world.
