The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe by James Belich

The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe
James Belich
Page: 640
Format: pdf, ePub, mobi, fb2
ISBN: 9780691215662
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Download The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe

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A groundbreaking history of how the Black Death unleashed revolutionary change across the medieval world and ushered in the modern age

In 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly halved entire populations and caused untold suffering, but it also brought about a cultural and economic renewal on a scale never before witnessed. The World the Plague Made is a panoramic history of how the bubonic plague revolutionized labour, trade, and technology and set the stage for Europe’s global expansion.

James Belich takes readers across centuries and continents to shed new light on one of history’s greatest paradoxes. Why did Europe’s dramatic rise begin in the wake of the Black Death? Belich shows how plague doubled the per capita endowment of everything even as it decimated the population. Many more people had disposable incomes. Demand grew for silks, sugar, spices, furs, gold, and slaves. Europe expanded to satisfy that demand—and plague provided the means. Labour scarcity drove more use of waterpower, wind power, and gunpowder. Technologies like water-powered blast furnaces, heavily gunned galleons, and musketry were fast-tracked by plague. A new “crew culture” of “disposable males” emerged to man the guns and galleons.

Setting the rise of Western Europe in global context, Belich demonstrates how the mighty empires of the Middle East and Russia also flourished after the plague, and how European expansion was deeply entangled with the Chinese and other peoples throughout the world.

How the black death changed the world | The Week UK
        The plague brought about the rise of the middle class - and pubs.
        The Black Death and the Great Transition - Medievalists.net
        The bubonic plague pandemic that broke out in Europe in 1347, and that accelerated technological innovation, and a rising middle class.
        1 The Black Death and the Plague Era - De Gruyter
        1 The Black Death and the Plague Era. From the book The World the Plague Made. James Belich. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691222875-005. Cite this.
        Bubonic Plague (article) - Khan Academy
        Although the lack of clear records makes it hard to be precise, historians generally estimate the Black Death killed between 30% and 60% of Europe's population 
        The World the Plague Made - De Gruyter
        A groundbreaking history of how the Black Death unleashed revolutionary change across the medieval world and ushered in the modern age

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