The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe.

AuthorUneke, Okori

James Belich. The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe. Princeton, NJ/Oxford, UK: Princeton University Press. 2022. v-ix + 622 pages. Hardcover, $39.95.

In his new book, Oxford historian James Belich examines the mid-fourteenth century outbreak of the bubonic plague in Europe and its far-reaching global impact on world history. The World the Plague Made traverses scholarly debates and disagreements to offer new analyses of historical events. The catastrophic plague, which started 1346, has been variously referred to as the "The Black Death," "Bubonic Plague" or simply "The Plague," reduced populations by 33 percent to 50 percent--even 60 percent--in some areas, and left tremendous death and suffering wherever it struck. For 300 years, the plague persisted intermittently across different regions of the world, including Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Russia, China, Mughal India, and the Muslim South (Middle East and North Africa). Although casualty numbers vary, it is estimated that about 75 million people perished during the plague in the fourteenth century, which makes the Covid-19 pandemic, with a 6.49 million global death rate, comparatively mild in its death toll. Paradoxically, despite the decimation of populations, Belich contends that the bubonic plague was the catalyst for Europe's rise to greatness, including its expansion into Asia and the Americas.

According to Belich, the Black Death brought about economic and cultural improvement and modernization. For example, labor shortages incentivized the improvement or development of new technologies, such as waterpower, wind power, and gunpowder. In addition, increases in economic productivity and commerce led to a growth in disposable incomes, which, in turn, led to an increase in the consumption of luxury goods like silks, furs, spices, sugars, gold, and slaves. In Belich's telling, Western Europe prospered because of the plague.

What was the origin of the bubonic plague? Medieval society did not know what caused the plague or how it was transmitted. Hence, superstition and conspiracy theories were rife. Belich concedes that some aspects of the plague, including its origin, remain controversial. The point of origin has not been identified with any precision, particularly given the paucity of documentation and lack of epidemiological knowledge in the Middle Ages. The plague reportedly started in Western China, though some scholarly interpretations establish its...

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