In 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly halved entire populations and caused untold suffering, but it also brought about a cultural and economic renewal on a scale never before witnessed. The World the Plague Made is a panoramic history of how the bubonic plague revolutionized labour, trade, and technology and set the stage for Europe’s global expansion. James Belich takes readers across centuries and continents to shed new light on one of history’s greatest paradoxes. Why did Europe’s dramatic rise begin in the wake of the Black Death? Belich shows how plague doubled the per capita endowment of everything even as it decimated the population. Many more people had disposable incomes. Demand grew for silks, sugar, spices, furs, gold, and slaves. Europe expanded to satisfy that demand—and plague provided the means. Labour scarcity drove more use of waterpower, wind power, and gunpowder. Technologies like water-powered blast furnaces, heavily gunned galleons, and musketry were fast-tracked by plague. A new “crew culture” of “disposable males” emerged to man the guns and galleons. Setting the rise of Western Europe in global context, Belich demonstrates how the mighty empires of the Middle East and Russia also flourished after the plague, and how European expansion was deeply entangled with the Chinese and other peoples throughout the world.
...More
Book
Maria Paola Zanoboni;
(2020)
La vita al tempo della peste. Misure restrittive, quarantena, crisi economica
(/isis/citation/CBB068961007/)
Chapter
Silvia D'Agata;
(2021)
Comunicare, prevenire, ricordare. Dalla peste del 1656 alla memoria del passato
(/isis/citation/CBB470794992/)
Article
Irma Naso;
(2021)
Pandemie tra passato e presente. Assonanze o anticipazioni?
(/isis/citation/CBB997024592/)
Book
Costanza Geddes da Filicaia;
Marco Geddes da Filicaia;
(2015)
Peste: Il ‘flagello di Dio’ fra letteratura e scienza
(/isis/citation/CBB178325117/)
Article
Erkoreka, Anton;
(2008)
Épidémies en Pays Basque: De la peste noire à la grippe espagnole
(/isis/citation/CBB000933241/)
Book
Alberto Luongo;
(2022)
La Peste Nera. Contagio, crisi e nuovi equilibri nell'Italia del Trecento
(/isis/citation/CBB395814124/)
Book
Bourdelais, Patrice;
(2006)
Epidemics Laid Low: A History of What Happened in Rich Countries
(/isis/citation/CBB000772231/)
Article
Gramlich-Oka, Bettina;
(2009)
The Body Economic: Japan's Cholera Epidemic of 1858 in Popular Discourse
(/isis/citation/CBB001021352/)
Book
Thomas J. Bollyky;
(2018)
Plagues and the Paradox of Progress: Why the World Is Getting Healthier in Worrisome Ways
(/isis/citation/CBB703607686/)
Article
Newton, Gill;
(2011)
Infant Mortality Variations, Feeding Practices and Social Status in London between 1550 and 1750
(/isis/citation/CBB001210674/)
Article
Almeida, Maria Antónia Pires de;
(2013)
Epidemics in the News: Health and Hygiene in the Press in Periods of Crisis
(/isis/citation/CBB001320417/)
Book
Ruth MacKay;
(2019)
Life in a Time of Pestilence: The Great Castilian Plague of 1596–1601
(/isis/citation/CBB865594602/)
Book
Nelli-Elena Vanzan Marchini;
(2022)
Guardarsi da chi non si guarda. La Repubblica di Venezia e il controllo delle pandemie
(/isis/citation/CBB098126566/)
Article
Samuel K. Jr. Cohn;
(2020)
The Dramaturgy of Epidemics
(/isis/citation/CBB448730401/)
Book
Alberto Tanturri;
(2018)
"Il soffio avvelenato del contagio": La peste di Noja del 1815-16
(/isis/citation/CBB014506181/)
Book
Nükhet Varlik;
(2015)
Plague and Empire in the Early Modern Mediterranean World: The Ottoman Experience, 1347-1600
(/isis/citation/CBB948772983/)
Book
Linda Clark;
Carole Rawcliffe;
(2013)
The Fifteenth Century. Xii, Society in an Age of Plague
(/isis/citation/CBB258524325/)
Article
Mirko Traversari;
Diletta Biagini;
Giancarlo Cerasoli;
Raffaele Gaeta;
Donata Luiselli;
Giorgio Gruppioni;
Elisabetta Cilli;
(2019)
The Plague of 1630 in Modena (Italy) through the Study of Parish Registers
(/isis/citation/CBB664087657/)
Article
Chaves, Cleide de Lima;
(2013)
Poder e saúde na América do Sul: os congressos sanitários internacionais, 1870--1889
(/isis/citation/CBB001420647/)
Book
Harrison, Mark;
(2012)
Contagion: How Commerce Has Spread Disease
(/isis/citation/CBB001210281/)
Be the first to comment!