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A review by dfauber
In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman F. Cantor
2.0
I thought the book was okay enough for me to finish it (though it was a trudge), but maybe not advertised correctly. I was expecting a book that took a medical and historical anthropological approach to the Black Death, extrapolating the ripples it created to the modern day. Hopefully, like The Ghost Map. What this book is mostly about is medieval property and marriage law and the various aristocratic changes of power in Europe and France during medieval times (and also I guess how the Black Death sometimes disrupted them).
The narrative is not chronological, which quickly becomes confusing and repetitive, especially when a random aristocrat is introduced for the third time. The information isn’t completely uninteresting, but ultimately is hard to follow as a cohesive narrative instead of occasionally overlapping anecdotes (that once again, only vaguely relate to the Black Death). This leaves the points he’s trying to make muddled and woven around incredibly tangental asides, that would leave me wondering, “How does this relate to the Black Death again?”.
I will say that I was interested to see some clear parallels between post-Black Death Europe and post-COVID 19 United States. For example, large scale labor organizing/protest and labor shortages. Additionally, the concept of blaming political unfavorables for causing the pandemic and those in power using that traction for political gain.
As a microbiologist I also have to mention the “Star Dust” theory of disease spontaneous generation that’s proposed at one point. I think it’s worthwhile that the author mentioned this theory, as it’s interesting that it exists and is supported by well regarded astrophysicists. However, (and maybe it’s the 30 years of microbial hindsight speaking) it’s pretty crazy to me how little anyone mentioned seems to be familiar with basic tenets of microbial evolution and quite frankly natural selection. The same microbes that are found in deep sea vents can be found in our hot water heaters with no account as to how they got either places, did they fall off comets to get both places? Or is it a case of rapidly converging mutations leading to similar structures? I’m not saying I disagree with the star dust theory as something that could POTENTIALLY happen. It’s laughable to say that Bubonic Plague (something that can in fact be found in the environment) is caused explicitly by space dust coming off comets and that’s it’s not happened once, but many times throughout millennia. I wish the author would have described some microbiology based theories in addition to this more outlandish one.
The narrative is not chronological, which quickly becomes confusing and repetitive, especially when a random aristocrat is introduced for the third time. The information isn’t completely uninteresting, but ultimately is hard to follow as a cohesive narrative instead of occasionally overlapping anecdotes (that once again, only vaguely relate to the Black Death). This leaves the points he’s trying to make muddled and woven around incredibly tangental asides, that would leave me wondering, “How does this relate to the Black Death again?”.
I will say that I was interested to see some clear parallels between post-Black Death Europe and post-COVID 19 United States. For example, large scale labor organizing/protest and labor shortages. Additionally, the concept of blaming political unfavorables for causing the pandemic and those in power using that traction for political gain.
As a microbiologist I also have to mention the “Star Dust” theory of disease spontaneous generation that’s proposed at one point. I think it’s worthwhile that the author mentioned this theory, as it’s interesting that it exists and is supported by well regarded astrophysicists. However, (and maybe it’s the 30 years of microbial hindsight speaking) it’s pretty crazy to me how little anyone mentioned seems to be familiar with basic tenets of microbial evolution and quite frankly natural selection. The same microbes that are found in deep sea vents can be found in our hot water heaters with no account as to how they got either places, did they fall off comets to get both places? Or is it a case of rapidly converging mutations leading to similar structures? I’m not saying I disagree with the star dust theory as something that could POTENTIALLY happen. It’s laughable to say that Bubonic Plague (something that can in fact be found in the environment) is caused explicitly by space dust coming off comets and that’s it’s not happened once, but many times throughout millennia. I wish the author would have described some microbiology based theories in addition to this more outlandish one.