THE END OF THE WORLD.(The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time)(Book Review)

The Black Death, the pandemic of bubonic plague that hit Europe in the mid-fourteenth century, is like a disaster movie: a menace stalks the land; cries go up in the streets; millions of people die, not including you and me. Therefore, like disaster movies, the Black Death is very popular. Its bibliography is long. A new title has now been added to the list, "The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time" (HarperCollins; $25.95), by the science writer John Kelly.

The Black Death seems to have originated in Asia, probably on or near the Central Asian steppe, home to large rodent populations carrying the plague ...