The Black Death (Sutton Illustrated History Paperbacks) [Paperback]

Philip Ziegler (Author)

Book Description

Series: Sutton Illustrated History Paperbacks | Publication Date: October 25, 1997

By the autumn of 1347, the Black Death had reached the shores of the eastern Mediterranean, causing social and economic upheavals on an unparalleled scale. Philip Ziegler's acclaimed exploration of this crucial event synthesizes the records of the contemporary chroniclers and the work of later historians in a masterly volume which is widely regarded as a classic. The book takes in the whole of Europe and considers the lasting effects of the Black Death on society and its contribution to the disintegration of an age.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Philip Ziegler was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. A former member of the diplomatic service, he has written biographies of King William IV, Lord Melbourne, Lady Diana Cooper, Lord Mountbatten, King Edward VIII, Harold Wilson, and Osbert Sitwell. His most recent book is Legacy: Cecil Rhodes, the Rhodes Trust and Rhodes Scholarships. He is at work on the official biography of Prime Minister Edward Heath. Mr. Ziegler lives with his wife in Kensington, London.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Sutton Publishing (October 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750917032
• ISBN-13: 978-0750917032
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,395,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "And in the dust be equal made", December 16, 2003

By 

mwreview "mwreview" (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Black Death (Paperback)

Ziegler's The Black Death was the only book I could find after a television documentary piqued my interest in the subject. I was worried the book would be too scholarly but, to my surprise, I found the writing style very pleasant and engaging. It is one of the best books I have read all year.

Originally published in 1969, Ziegler gathered sources on the plague from the period to more recent examinations to try to create the most accurate picture possible of what it was like in Medieval Europe during 1348-1350 and the effects the Black Death had on Europe. Ziegler admits in his preface that he did not conduct any original research but he does critique the works of others, especially Thorold Rogers' theory that the Black Plague caused the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 (p. 188). He includes a chapter each on Italy, France, and Germany; the latter of which saw the emergence of the Flagellant movement and persecution of the Jews based on suspicions similar to those used in Nazi Germany. England is covered the most with 5 chapters and a 6th on Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. Ziegler demonstrates the fear of the people right from the beginning when the plague entered Europe through Sicily. The patriarch of Catania wished to bring relics to nearby, plague-ridden Messina only to have the Catanians protest against the idea. In compromise, the patriarch dipped the relics in water and brought the water to the suffering neighbors (p. 28).

Ziegler describes what Medieval life was like in sometimes witty style: "The medieval house might have been built to specifications approved by a rodent council" (p. 199). Period ideas on how to prevent infection are also interesting, including a elixir made of gold and quicksilver: "At least the high price of gold ensured that not many invalids could afford to be poisoned by such medicine" (p. 55). The chapter on the fictitious villages I also found to be very well-done and a nice change of pace from the somewhat statistically-driven prose.

Two things I wish were in this book are a better map and more information on what the plague sufferer went through besides the obvious symptoms like boils. A map is included but it is inadequate as it does not list all (or even a small percentage of) the villages mentioned. Still, the book is well-written AND scholarly. Ziegler is very careful to qualify statements, avoid generalizations, and fairly critique all statistics given about the plague. My copy also has numerous illustrations and a color section on period plague-related art. It is made very evident the horror of the Black Death through such statements as: "Peterborough, another of those low-lying areas which were so remarkably well treated by the plague, [had a mortality] level notably below the average at a mere 27%" (p. 138).

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too popularized to be academic and too dry to be enjoyable, August 11, 2000

By 

Tess (MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Black Death (Sutton Illustrated History Paperbacks) (Paperback)

Ziegler's "The Black Death" is obviously intended to be a popularized account of the infamous bubonic plague that swept Europe in the late 1300s. Unfortunately, the book suffers from the worst of both worlds. It is too full of statistics and academic arguments to be an easily readable book, and yet has nothing new to offer that would make it interesting to the academic. There is nothing wrong with writing a book based only on previously published sources, but Ziegler does not do a good job of integrating these sources together. He discusses the relative merits of this method of computing the number of dead and that method of computing the number of dead; this discussion takes pages. One gets the feeling that a good editor was needed, to go through the book with a red pen and make Ziegler cut these pages of boring exposition down to mere paragraphs. Unfortunately, one also gets the feeling that these pages were left in because without them, the book would be exceedingly slender.

A few other complaints: an entire chapter was devoted to a fictional village. Why? Ziegler writes that it is to provide a look at what an average village would suffer, but surely some village, somewhere in England, was thoroughly enough documented that Ziegler did not have to resort to fiction. (I would be much less disapproving if the writing in this chapter had been better.)

The book is also overly concerned with documenting the progress of the plague: first it went here, where it killed X number of people, then it went here, where it killed Y number of people. As with the pages of tedious discussion about academic theories, this leaves one with the overall feeling that this book was written, not out of any abiding interest in the subject, but because he thought it would sell. Ziegler discusses (very briefly) medieval treatments of the plague, as well as its symptoms. What I was hoping for as I read that section was that Ziegler would then explain why those treatments did not work, and what the current treatment for bubonic plague is. Unfortunately, Ziegler didn't seem to have much interest in the plague as a disease: just on its progression through and impact on the middle ages.

Connie Willis' "Doomsday Book," while fiction, is much more readable, and (to my admittedly inexpert eyes) just as well-researched as "The Black Death." Certainly I learned little new about the bubonic plague from "The Black Death" that I did not already know from reading other (nonfiction) books on the middle ages.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DEATH DOESN'T TAKE A HOLIDAY, November 6, 2001

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Black Death (Sutton Illustrated History Paperbacks) (Paperback)

This was an interesting excursion by Mr. Ziegler into the Medieval Era, not usually thought of as his milieu. He acknowledges right up front that he has not done any original research, but has merely brought the material of others together and drawn some conclusions. But, in such a controversial field as this, drawing intelligent conclusions is no mean feat.

Mr. Ziegler starts off the book giving the big picture, showing the Tartars attacking a Genoese trading post in Asia. The Tartar forces are stricken down by the plague and, using some creative tactics, start catapulting some diseased corpses into the Genoese compound. The Genoese quickly get the message and escape by sea back to Europe. The rest, as they say, is history.....

The author has a few chapters where he gives an overview of what happened in Italy, Germany and France. In Germany, in an eerie precursor of things to come centuries later, the Jews are blamed for the calamity and are accused of spreading the plague by poisoning wells. Attacks on Jews, along with the epidemic, spread from town to town.

The great majority of the book deals with what happened in England. I don't know if this was Mr. Ziegler's preference or if he felt that the best documentation pertained mostly to the British Isles. He discusses how many people died in various areas of the country; what happened to wage levels and to prices; how the established Church and the various mendicant orders were affected; etc. The author presents all sides of the issues and draws, at least to me, reasonable conclusions.

With the exception of a couple of chapters midway through the book, where the repetitive statistics put me into a stupor, the book is lively and well-written. One especially good chapter deals with what it would have been like to live in a village before and after it was ravaged by the plague. This chapter helps to put the statistics into human terms, as was Mr. Ziegler's intent.

I would have liked some more material on the other countries, and this is what prevents me from giving the book 5 stars. But, still, Mr. Ziegler has done a very good job. This is a fine book.