The World the Plague Made

July 4, 2022
In this sweeping study, University of Oxford historian Belich (Replenishing the Earth) contends that the bubonic plague was crucial to the emergence of the modern world and the rise of western Europe as an economic and political power. Although the Black Death claimed a 50% morality rate in many places, it also led to a “plague boom” from 1350 to 1500, as the same natural resources were now essentially available to half as many people. The collapse of the feudal system because of labor shortages and urban migration led to a sharp increase in real wages, the transformation of the desperate poor “from a large majority into a large minority,” and a building spike in London, Paris, and other metropolises. Belich also examines the plague’s effects on Russia, the Ottoman Empire, eastern Europe, and the Muslim world, yet as he travels nearly five centuries from the emergence of the Black Death in the Black Sea/Volga region in 1345, his arguments for its central role in the establishment of racial castes in Latin America, the development of Siberia, and other far-flung matters grow more tenuous. Readers may also find themselves overwhelmed by the deluge of economic and other data. Still, this is a provocative and impressive history of an earth-shattering event.

June 1, 2022

Historian Belich (Replenishing the Earth) makes the bold claim in this sweeping work of revisionist history that the Black Death, often called the bubonic plague, was the catalyst for Europe's dramatic rise to greatness. The Beit Professor of Imperial and Commonwealth History at the University of Oxford uses an approach he terms an "intensive global history." He posits that the successive strikes or waves of the bubonic plague in 1346 and beyond were the main drivers behind technological innovation, industrial advances, and massively expanded trade networks that enriched Europe materially and culturally. For example, the ripple effects of massive depopulation had immediate impact upon survivors, as disposable income doubled and labor shortages created an increased demand for goods and services that societies rushed to meet. Based upon an exhaustive array of sources and the latest information and scientific data on the infection, Belich asks the essential question: "Why Europe?" He explores the answer within a global framework that reveals how the empires of the Middle East and Russia also reaped benefits from the plague's terrible scythe. VERDICT Densely detailed but rich in erudition and startling new insights, this fresh look at the impact of the Black Death upon world history is a must for history lovers and plague afficionados alike.--Peggy Kurkowski

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