plague

The Plague, in the Plague: Have Black Death Comparisons Taught us Anything?

by Peter Manseau

The author of a new novel of the Black Plague and the co-author of a revisionist book on the medieval period discuss the tendency to make "rainbow connections" between past and present that oversimplify events to give moral guidance. 

Was the Black Death Less Severe and Shorter than We Think?

by Adam Izdebski, Alessia Masi and Timothy P. Newfield

"While no two pandemics are the same, the study of the past can help us discover where to look for our own vulnerabilities and how to best prepare for future outbreaks. To begin to do that, though, we need to reassess past epidemics with all the evidence we can."

How Amsterdam Recovered From a Deadly Outbreak — in 1665

Attracting migrants was the key to Amsterdam's economic and social recovery, according to a study of historical data by two Dutch economists. 

Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?

The application of DNA testing technology to the bodies of people from the medieval era suggests that the Black Death was present much earlier than believed. 

The Plague in Ancient Athens: A Cautionary Tale for America

by Fred Zilian

The United States in some respects has fared better under COVID than Athens did during the plague that accompanied the Peloponnesian War: a vaccine is in sight, and our head of state survived the day's most feared disease. But in both cases, disease showed the strains and cracks of a society and political system that will be difficult to repair.

How Venetians Invented Health Care

by Meredith F. Small

It's been widely discussed during this pandemic year that Venetians invented the quarantine. But the author of a new book on Venice's history of innovation argues that it was just one of the public health measures for which we can thank them.

Medieval Europeans Didn’t Understand how the Plague Spread. Their Response Wasn’t so Different from Ours Now

"As we spoke with historians and searched for the plague’s lasting marks, what stood out most were the similarities, 672 years apart."

When 194,000 Deaths Doesn’t Sound Like So Many

by Rebecca Onion

Historian Jacqueline Wernimont explains that the rise of quantification helps to obscure the human beings behind the numbers and makes the COVID-19 toll seem more acceptable. 

Ancient Teeth Show History of Epidemics is Much Older than we Thought

Scientists and archaeologists now believe that the plague bacteria, which caused the medieval Black Death, infected humans roughly 5,000 years ago in the Stone Age.

When Plague Is Not a Metaphor

by Hunter Gardner

It's not always a blessing when current events make a researcher's specialty suddenly and urgently relevant. 

From Black Death to Fatal Flu, Past Pandemics Show Why People on the Margins Suffer Most

Evidence from bioanthropology and history suggests that late medieval plagues (and other pandemics) are not levelling forces; they often reinforce the divisions in society.

How Humans Have Reacted To Pandemics Through History – A Visual Guide

From arguments about masks to riots outside hospitals, history shows some common threads in the human response to pandemics.

Christian Groups That Resist Public-Health Guidelines Are Forgetting a Key Part of the Religion's History

by Matthew Gabriele

Scholars have shown that a large part of Christianity’s attraction in the Roman world was that it cared for the welfare of the people who were suffering.

What History Can Teach Us About Building a Fairer Society After Coronavirus

Local protests and uprisings against landlords had happened before, but after the Black Death they became more common.

Defoe’s Journal of the Plague Year and the Year of COVID-19

by Frank Palmeri

Defoe's accomplishment as a work of history lies not so much in the accuracy of its numbers or facts as in its power as a work of fiction, in the observing eye and skeptical intelligence of H.F., and in the stories he tells, which convey through common language and the details of common life what it was like to live through the plague. 

What Our Contagion Fables Are Really About

by Jill Lepore

In the literature of pestilence, the greatest threat isn’t the loss of human life but the loss of what makes us human.

The Plague That Killed Athenian Democracy

by Robert Zaretsky

Want to know how disease can permanently alter a society? Read Thucydides.

How 5 of History's Worst Pandemics Finally Ended

Here’s how five of the world’s worst pandemics finally ended.

Shakespeare Wrote His Best Works During a Plague

by Daniel Pollack-Peltzner

The most heartening lesson from Shakespeare’s era is that the playhouses will likely survive and reopen, again and again. What plays to perform when they do?

The Justinianic Plague's Devastating Impact Was Likely Exaggerated

by Katherine J. Wu

After poring through data ranging from historical texts to pollen samples and mortuary archaeology, an international team of researchers has concluded that reports of the havoc wreaked by the Justinianic plague may have been exaggerated.