King Death: The Black Death and Its Aftermath in Late-Medieval England

by Colin Platt

Book Overview

This illustrated survey examines what it was actually like to live with plague and the threat of plague in late-medieval and early modern England.; Colin Platt's books include "The English Medieval... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802079008
• ISBN13: 9780802079008
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

a history book for those serious about history

Colin Platt gives an excellent, IN-DEPTH review of scholarship surrounding the impact of the Black Death on late-medieval England, full of original contributions to the field. His chapters are well thought-out and well documented. Some, especially the chapters on church art, are very moving; others, such as the chapter on widows made wealthy by the plague, will force the reader to reconsider their views on literature contemporary to the plague (and here I am thinking of Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" in particular). If you're looking for stories of gruesome death, well, perhaps this is not the first place to look (although there's still plenty of that here). If, on the other hand, you're looking for a more in-depth look at the plague and what it did to the societies it infected, here's the place to come when you've tired of the gruesome bits.

Both accessible and scholarly

More professional historians should write books like this, and more publishers should encourage them to do so. King Death is well-written (no academic baffle-gab), well-illustrated, and well-designed. It is a joy to handle and read.The subject of this book is the long-term consequences for English society of the Black Death. (If you are looking for an account of the plague itself, you should probably go elsewhere.) Colin Platt works his way through the effects on religion, economy, marriage and family in topical chapters. The general reader will get a lot out of it -- will come away with a much greater knowledge of later medieval England and of the effects of population trends on society. I suspect many scholars will find this a useful book, too. This is not a rehash of long-known material, but a study that's as up-to-date as it is accessible.