Brief Overview Of The Great Mortality By John Kelly

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The Great Mortality by John Kelly delivers vivid accounts and perspectives on the disease that plagued the much of the medieval century. Kelly, a seasoned author and graduate in European studies, provides this well researched book into further understanding the Black Death. The book, thorough and entertaining to read allows a reader to go back into time and vividly picture life during the the Black Plague.
Beginning from plague eruption in 1347 until the 1350’s, disease raced out of Asia, west into the Middle East and throughout Europe. Initially carried by rodents, fleas, and spread through, travel, dense populations, and poor hygiene; the Black Death claimed the lives of an estimated third to a half of the European population.
In his …show more content…

from the bustling ports along the China Sea to the sleepy fishing villages of coastal Portugal”- pre, during, and post plague. Kelly provides factual understanding of plague origins and scientific theories, while recounting the varied reactions to the plague by quoting individuals personal diaries, letters, and entries. From the perspective of a part-time tax collector is Sienna, Kelly recounts “ It was corpses packed like “lasagna” in municipal plague pits, collection carts winding through early morning streets to pick up the previous day's dead, husbands abandoning dying wives and parents abandoning dying children - for fear of contagion…”. The author uses detailed accounts to help depict politics, population, economic, societal, and religious upheavals as well. He’s able to bring alive a world of voice and personality to one of the Eurasia's most devastating epidemics. Though Kelly has a tendency to ramble and get repetitive at some points, overall he was able to provide a truly in depth understanding of life in this time period that was engaging and enlightening to read …show more content…

This additional acknowledgment peaks interest even more as it allows a reader to look at differing perspectives from others. Kelly uses this section to debunk theories of modern plague deniers. He counter argues theories such as the Black Death being caused by a disease other than plague. Kelly refutes this idea by providing new evidence of DNA samples found in dental pulp in fourteenth century corpses that proved to match other verified samples of plague (300). This section adds to Kelly’s validity on the subject and adds an interesting, thought provoking element to the

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