In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made
Author:
Genres: History, Medicine, Medical Books
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: History, Medicine, Medical Books
Book Type: Paperback
When a book about the plague of the 14th century begins with the claim the the "Ring around the rosie" rhyme is of medieval origin and refers to the plague, you know the author is very lazy in his scholarship. (The connection between the rhyme and the plague is generally believed to be mythical since the first written record of it is from the 18th century and the connection between the rhyme and the plague wasn't claimed until the 20th).
Unfortunately, errors and misinterpretations of facts seems to be Cantor's norm rather than the exception. Even when the facts are correct, the conclusions he draws from them are highly dubious. For example, an average life expectancy in the 40s did not mean that it was rare for someone to live past 50. It was quite common. The average life expectancy was so low because childhood mortality was high, not because individuals who survived to adulthood died relatively young.
He also has a tendency to go off onto peculiar tangents (connecting Thomas Aquinas with modern liberalism, for example) and inserting his rather eccentric perspective on current culture into his discussion of the medieval history that is supposed to be the topic of the book.
Oh, and the editing is bad. The same information is sometimes repeated on the same page or even, amazingly, the same sentence.
On the plus side, the book is short (only 220 pages) and easy to read. I finished it in a single day.
Read it if you wish, but don't take it too seriously.
Unfortunately, errors and misinterpretations of facts seems to be Cantor's norm rather than the exception. Even when the facts are correct, the conclusions he draws from them are highly dubious. For example, an average life expectancy in the 40s did not mean that it was rare for someone to live past 50. It was quite common. The average life expectancy was so low because childhood mortality was high, not because individuals who survived to adulthood died relatively young.
He also has a tendency to go off onto peculiar tangents (connecting Thomas Aquinas with modern liberalism, for example) and inserting his rather eccentric perspective on current culture into his discussion of the medieval history that is supposed to be the topic of the book.
Oh, and the editing is bad. The same information is sometimes repeated on the same page or even, amazingly, the same sentence.
On the plus side, the book is short (only 220 pages) and easy to read. I finished it in a single day.
Read it if you wish, but don't take it too seriously.
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