Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.

A good, short review (~200 pages) of the Black Death of the late 1340's, written in 1985. Herlihy makes the point that the actual culprit microbe is unknown. It could be Y. pestis, or it could be cholera. Some people spoke of buboes, while others of lenticulae, or freckles.

He also hypothesizes that the plague mothered inventions, including the printing press, brought on a distrust of experts, doctors, and Jews, intensified the use of capital, the use of of Christian Saints' names, ended feudalism and ended medievalism.… (meer)

Cohn has looked through thousands of chronicles and court records to document thousands of medieval peasant revolts. He discusses the pros and cons of various ways of classifying these rebellions. He notes a major increase in number and scale of rebellions after the Black Death, and argues (a little weakly, I think) that what unites the post-plague rebellions is the peasants' desire for liberty - that is, there are certain rights (which Cohn never defines very well) that the peasants want. If the conclusion is a little weak, the rest of the book is quite strong, and really puts these rebellions into perspective.… (meer)