I found this fair-condition softcover at a local Savers thrift shop, and had to have it. It's a history of the Plague and its effects on populations across Europe in the 14th century, with focuses on individual countries as the plague reached them. The disease itself was horrible enough without some of the complications - increasingly-panicked populations might vent their fears on any groups they disliked, and in some cases this resulted in nightmarish pogroms of Jewish communities.

The book includes many of the earliest-known descriptions of the symptoms of the disease, which are often quite detailed and accurate even though it would be centuries before people learned the true cause and transmission vectors. Since the symptoms are so clear and are relatively unique, this allows the collation of accounts from around the world and through history, tracing the outbursts with often-surprising accuracy.

I liked the author's tone, which would sometimes get nicely snarky: "Enjoying as we do the immense superiority of a generation which has devised means of mass destruction more effective even than those inflicted by nature on our ancestors, it is easy and tempting to deride their inability to understand the calamity which had overtaken them."

I donated this book to the ongoing book-sale in the library at around 2 or so (and, of course, picked up a few more books for myself!). They sell donated books for very low prices, with the proceeds going to benefit library programs. Hope the buyer enjoys the book!

*** Released as part of the 2015 Spook-tacular release challenge. ***

*** Released as part of the 2015 TICK TOCK release challenge. ***