The Black Death: New Lessons from Recent Research

De: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses

Narrado por: 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?

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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.

Too much personal commentary on current political

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

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.

Recommended

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