The Black Death: New Lessons from Recent Research

By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong

The world has been fundamentally changed by the shock and devastation of a 21st century pandemic. COVID-19 has claimed six million lives; we process a daily deluge of often conflicting and/or overwhelming information; and humanity has no way of knowing when this collective trauma will finally end. Will our lives ever be the same again? It seems not.

Now, try to imagine the plague that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages and beyond: more than 25 million dead. Almost 400 years of outbreaks caused by a bacterium that would not be identified until the 19th century. The mortality rate was close to 85%, with as much as 70% of the population wiped out in some locations. Superstition was pervasive, and medical practices were frequently ineffective and harmful. What caused this tragedy, and what could have been done about it? For years, we thought we knew … but we often had it wrong.

In The Black Death: New Lessons from Recent Research, celebrated medievalist Dorsey Armstrong shares the fascinating new story of this old pandemic—revealed by dedicated researchers working with 21st-century technologies and a knowledge of language and history that now provide input from all geographic areas of the medieval world. In seven engaging lectures, Professor Armstrong corrects explanations of the pandemic that are now known to be inaccurate and offers a more robust description of plague biology than has ever been known. COVID-19 isn’t likely to be humanity’s last experience with a zoonotic disease, so what can we learn now from these two pandemics that could help us in the future?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 The Great Courses (P)2022 The Teaching Company, LLC

Dorsey Armstrong

I have loved everything I have listened to or read by her. She is so knowledgeable and presents the information in a way that actually make it fun to learn.

Went From History to Politics

The author used this lecture series to correct mistakes in her previous lecture that I liked. In this lecture she delves into politics which is her second mistake (don’t expect a third lecture on the pablum in this lecture). She conflates the Covid incidents where Asian Americans were targets of INDIVIDUALS for violent to large mob violence against Jews. You see, in case you didn’t know it, we are all racists. The vast majority of violence on Asians occurred in inner cities and there is little, if any, evidence that a significant number of those incidents were based on the fact that people were using ‘China Virus’ as the mainstream news media did early on. Never mind that we’ve used this naming convention for nearly all virus names in the past. As she repeated all the leftist tropes and modalities about how awful and racist the USA is. Her comments about masks and the origins of COVID are misinformation. The efficacy of masks is nearly zero, the efficacy of vaccines for 18-40 year old men were minimal, but she doesn’t hesitate to disparage people who were skeptical of what our government told us.

Excellent followup to original course

Dorsey provides an interesting update and corrections to topics covered. In her original course.

Short and Preachy Some Interesting Information

Realistically this book could have been 45 minutes to an hour long and conveyed the same message in a better way.

The covid discussion portion could have been done a lot better as well.
I understand people refused to wear masks and were rude to employees just trying to enforce mask rules.. I've seen this first hand. I think a lot of people have. Or have refused to wear masks themselves.

What would have been interesting to hear about is the science/reason why people are refusing to wear masks and to take measures that slow/stop the spread of a disease in modern times. It would be interesting to look at more comparisons between peoples reaction to Covid and The Black Death. People breaking quarantine, people refusing to obey rules meant to save their lives, and people intentionally doing the exact opposite. There are events like this in history to draw comparisons to.
People were doing these things even in times of the black death where the disease essentially was a 100% chance you and your entire family dies. And they had almost no information on it back then either. How did we believe that the average person would follow the rules for slowing the spread of a sickness that kills around 2% of its victims when they didn't back then either.
"People then and now are more alike than they are different"
I have to wonder about how many people knowingly sick traveled to other towns and areas. I have to wonder how many people said the black death was fake or nothing to worry about. Only to be thrown into a plague pit and forgotten by history. I have to wonder how many people in their idiocy they took with them.

Too much personal commentary on current political

Less substance than her earlier courses. Too woke. Not interested in her political commentary.

Recommended

A really interesting update on current knowledge of the Black Death - and also COVID.

Great update and relevant to today

The update of recent research was interesting and pointed out how we keep learning and that even history is not static. The tie-ins to the Covid-19 pandemic really increased my feelings of empathy and connection to those that suffered during (and after) the black death.

New Lessons

The comparisons between The Black Death and Covid 19 are very insightful. I appreciate her professionalism and also her honest hope that we can learn so much from both of these significant events. She has great presentation and I definitely will listen to the information and lessons she offers several more times.

Not political

A number of reviewers here have accused this audiobook of being political. The fact is, it isn't at all. "New Lessons from Recent Research" is an important (and interesting) update to Armstrong's previous release on this topic, "The Black Death: The World's Most Devastating Plague".
Check it out. Dorsey Armstrong--the "indeed" girl (wink)--is always a blast to listen to, and her knowledge of this subject and the history surrounding these events is comprehensive to say the least, especially when this volume is included.
This book isn't "personal". Nor is it political propaganda. It's simply terrific.

Love the history lesson…but…

There are much lessons to be gleaned from this lecture series. I appreciate the research efforts that went into these. I just have to say that the idealistic nature of the ending lecture is exactly that—idealistic. Without any offer of practical answers to the questions, it’s a smidge “preachy” without substantive suggestions for problem solving. I completely agree our capitalistic American society needs a safety net for those who need help the most. But talk is cheap. Having traveled the world and seeing the various healthcare systems in European AND those of the developing nations, I’ve come to the conclusion American healthcare is not perfect, but it’s marginally better than most. Ask any Canadian or Swede if they’d rather wait for their turn to be seen by doctors. Chances are, those with means will tell you they’ll gladly fly to the US. Again, we have not a perfect system, no one does. But at least you have a fighting chance against critical illnesses rather than waiting months or years for your turn in other socialist countries. I’m just saying this to balance out the socialist narrative. Thank you for listening.