From: reiher@pram.cs.ucla.edu (Peter Reiher)
Newsgroups: soc.history,rec.arts.books
Subject: "The Black Death", by Philip Ziegler
Date: 14 Aug 92 16:59:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Aug14.165903.29670
Organization: UCLA Computer Science Department

"The Black Death" is an attempt at a comprehensive introduction to
the effects of the first (and most destructive) major wave of
the bubonic plague (and its associated diseases) in Europe.  This
plague killed vast numbers of people, and may or may not have had
major long-term effects on European society and culture.  Given
the incredible human tragedy of a plague that killed between one
in four and half the population of a continent, one might expect
a fascinating book to emerge.  Unfortunately, that's not what
Ziegler delivers.

The Black Death arrived in Europe in the late 1340's, having come 
out of the far East.  It swept across the continent over the course 
of three or four years, killing hundreds of thousands.  It lingered
in a less destructive form for a few years longer, and subsequent
epidemics hit Europe during the next few decades, though they were
considerably less destructive.

Ziegler's history of the Black Death was written because there was
no existing book that could serve as an introduction to the entire
subject.  Most of the writings about it were quite specialized, and
generally scholarly.  Ziegler set out to write a book that would fill
this gap.  The intent seems to be a book that can either serve as
an introduction to the scholar entering the field (the book is rich
in footnotes, and contains much material about the theories of
scholars on the effects of the Black Death), or as the only book a
general reader would be likely to read on the subject.

Since I fall into the latter category, I can better judge the book's
success in achieving that goal, which is mixed.  Ziegler does not
generally have a very engaging style.  He does best in a semi-fictional 
chapter that examines the plague's effects on a single English
village.  This chapter apparently grew out of a recognition by Zielger
that he had not adequately demonstrated the true magnitude of what
happened to a community when the plague arrived, despite many pages
discussing statistics and historical records.  This chapter probably
does more to bring home the human dimension of the tragedy of the
Black Death than the rest of the book combined.  (While strictly
fictional, all of the major events described and attitudes the characters
in these chapters show were solidly based on historical records drawn
from a variety of sources.)

In the main, though, Ziegler guides the reader through a dusty library
of medieval records describing how many beneficed clerical positions in
Sussex had to be filled in a two year span, or how many members of
the city council of York died from the time the plague arrived until it
left, or how the revenues of a manor belonging to an Archbishop were
affected by the plague.  It's a fairly large, fairly dusty library,
and Ziegler lacks the talent to make us see the people behind the
numbers.

Another flaw of this book is that it is Eurocentric, with strongest
emphasis on Western Europe, and strongest emphasis of all on Britain.
One might almost guess that Ziegler originally intended to write a
history of the plague in Britain, and later expanded his book just
enough to be able to legitimately claim that it dealt with the
continent, as a whole.  More than half the book deals with the
effects of the Black Death in England.  Given that England generally
has a more complete set of historical records from the Middle Ages 
than any other country of Europe, this emphasis can be excused, to
a certain extent, but a great deal of the material about the plague
in England is too repetitive to be justified as an in-depth examination
of the best available set of records.  If that were Ziegler's game,
surely he would not have needed separate chapters on the various
regions of England, each as long as any of the chapters on entire
countries, in the rest of the book.  Moreover, once he leaves the rest 
of the continent, around the fifth chapter, he practically forgets 
about its existence.  Even the material he does present on other
countries is rather selective - we hear nothing, or next to it, 
about the effects of the plague on Scandanavia, eastern Europe, the 
Low Countries, Spain, or Switzerland.  Only Italy (as site
of the first known cases), France (as a springboard for a discussion of
medieval medicine), and Germany (as a springboard for discussion of
the Flagellent movement and persecution of the Jews) receive any
detailed treatment.  Nothing whatsoever is said about whether the
plague even arrived in North Africa, and very little about its effects
in the Middle East, both areas that were in regular communications
with Europe, and whose fate surely touched directly on European
history.

Ziegler is not, himself, a professional historian.  "The Black Death"
does not contain original research not presented elsewhere.  But Ziegler
clearly did read a vast amount of the material published on the subject,
and has a strong grasp on the historical controversies involved in
the Black Death, such as how many people died (Ziegler is careful
about this issue, but is willing to admit one in three as a reasonable
estimate) and what the long-term effects of the Black Death on medieval
society were.  If one has a need to get a fairly objective idea of
what the state of scholarship on the Black Death was in 1969, when
the book was published, Ziegler has probably written the best book
for you.

As best as I can tell, the edition I read contained identical text as
the 1969 edition, but a large quantity of illustrations.  The latter
did not seem especially well chosen - while generally appropriate, I
would have thought that the rich field of medieval art dealing with
plague would have yielded more compelling illustrations than those
chosen.

"The Black Plague" is only worth reading if you have a pretty serious
interest in the subject.  It offers little to reward readers who
are looking for a history book that brings a period to life, or makes
the reader understand an important topic better.  At only 230 pages,
with many illustrations and fairly large type, it does not take too
long to get through, and Ziegler's style is straightforward and
easy, if not very entertaining, so I can recommend the book to those
with a moderate desire to learn more about the Black Death.  If you
have no interest in the subject, the book has little to offer you.

--
		Peter Reiher
		reiher@wells.cs.ucla.edu
Newsgroups: soc.history