Plague, Pestilence and Pandemic: Voices from History Paperback – May 11, 2021

I am not particularly a fan of non fiction unless it involves WW2 but I thoroughly enjoyed this. So much so that I got it as a kindle book but I am going to buy the hardcover. It is one thing to read about the Black Plague, but it’s quite another to learn there have been many many more great and minor plagues starting with the Augustinian plague right up to COVID-19. The author starts each disease chapter with a detailed description of the disease. Then the rest of the chapter are excerpts from real people’s writings either published, diaries or later on, blogs. Hearing them talk in their own voices about their struggles and seeing the progression of medical knowledge is fascinating and at times heartbreaking. For those of still trying to navigate our way through almost post COVID times it was a wonderful read.

History, particularly plagues and their effects on the inflicted and world around them, is my favorite reading topic. So I expected to love this book instead of struggling to get through it. I love the idea of reading what the contemporaries had to say about the diseases inflicted upon them, but in some chapters there are too many excerpts all saying essentially the exact same thing. It is nice that the author includes a page or two write up in the beginning of each disease, but he could do with more of an overview and less of the voices in some sections. I’m only just to the second part of the book because the Black Death and sleeping sickness were tedious and cumbersome. Loved through Justinian’s plague and felt that those first sections were a lovely balance of information and the voices with the voices all contributing different viewpoints. I want to love it, but I just don’t even though I will keep struggling through it.

This book provides a nice survey of past plagues but fails to go into any depth. It is also broken up into sub-sections that makes for a disjointed read.