A magisterial history of one of the worst ever pandemics [ which] focuses on the individuals caught up in the chaos -- Steven Poole * Guardian * An up-to-the-hour work of scholarship that is at the same time a page turner: intimate stories of suffering, death and resilience are situated in large scale social, cultural and economic histories of the ravages of the Black Death as it spread across the globe. Asbridge's definitive biography of Yersina pestis, the germ that caused the worlds deadliest disease, is a masterpiece -- Thomas W. Laqueur Compelling, horrifying, humane. This is the history we need now of this cataclysmic pandemic: wide-ranging, personal and hugely accessible. From Kilkenny to Cairo, Moscow to Mecca, Asbridge allows us to see the Black Death through the eyes and in the words of the people all around the world who experienced its terrors, sought to make sense of it, and lived with all its seismic and durable consequences . . . A must-read for anyone who wants to get under the skin and into the mindset of the Middle Ages, or who needs to know how humans react when faced with apocalypse -- Seb Falk Tom Asbridge does for the Black Death what John Keegan did for battle: evoking the feeling of being there, recapturing the experience of the sufferers and survivors. Admiring the flawless scholarship, in language that is lucid, vivid, uncluttered with theory and uninfected by jargon, Id be tempted if it werent too paradoxical to say that he makes plague a pleasure -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto This is a rich, multifaceted history that finally makes sense of the research that has shifted our picture of the Black Death so much over the last twenty years. Asbridges account of how the Black Death was finally identified reads like a detective novel. Truly mind-opening history, on a global scale, that makes you rethink what you thought you knew. -- Lyndal Roper This ambitious book tracks the pandemics global spread, specifically in areas like the Near and Middle East, Byzantium, North Africa, and Asia... With a focus on the human element, the author not only illustrates the terror and upheaval of this terrible time but also looks at the lives of those who lived through the Black Death, from royalty to the working class... Asbridges exceptional research ultimately reveals humanitys capacity for empathy and survival * Blackwell's, The Most Anticipated Books of 2026 * In The Black Death, Thomas Asbridge paints a brilliant, ground-up portrait of the calamitous pandemic that ravaged the globe in the fourteenth century. Combining outstanding storytelling, deep historical research, and cutting-edge scientific and archaeological discoveries, Asbridge beautifully conveys both the human experience of mass mortality and its myriad impacts large and small on the world that emerged in the Black Death's shadow -- Patrick Wyman Terrific - and truly terrifying. Asbridge puts a human face, or rather multiple faces, on the Black Death, the most famous pandemic to have afflicted humankind prior to Covid-19. The parallels between the two jump off the pages, thereby making this shockingly detailed discussion of events that took place 600 years ago both recognizable and utterly relevant to today. Arguably one of the best books ever to have been written on this topic -- Eric Cline Asbridge has written a very readable, accessible, and engaging history of the Black Death of the late Middle Ages. Global in scope, The Black Death takes readers on a grand tour of the plagues ravages . . . Using both chronicles and archival records, particularly wills, Asbridge reveals the lived experience both of the leading figures of the day and of ordinary men and women struggling to make sense of the calamity. Not content to simply recount the history of the Black Death, Asbridge places the plague within the wider context of late medieval society and culture (particularly in terms of religion and medicine), both in order to better comprehend how the disease impacted medieval people, and to understand why they reacted to plague in the way that they did -- John Aberth
