The Black Death by Thomas Asbridge

The Black Death by Thomas Asbridge

Thomas Asbridge’s remarkable new book reveals the global impact of humanity’s greatest natural disaster, and the terrible human cost of this calamity.

'An up-to-the-hour work of scholarship that is at the same time a page turner... Asbridge's definitive biography of yersina pestis, the germ that caused the world’s deadliest disease, is a masterpiece' Thomas W. Laqueur

In the mid-fourteenth century, a lethal plague struck the medieval world, causing unimaginable suffering and destruction. This terrifying pandemic – the Black Death – was unquestionably one of history’s defining episodes, yet a critical feature of its progress has often been ignored: the disease was not confined to Europe, but rather affected almost all of the known world, including the Near and Middle East, Byzantium, north Africa and Asia.

Tracing the pandemic’s course across the medieval globe, The Black Death contrasts the experiences of different peoples, including Christians, Muslims and Jews, charting this catastrophe’s transformative effects on diverse aspects of medieval life. And crucially, Asbridge demonstrates that the plague was often at its most destructive in the Islamic world, where it ultimately played a role in the collapse of the mighty Mamluk Empire.

The Black Death also brings the human drama of this calamitous era to life, evoking the terror and the turmoil that beset cities such as London, Cairo and Florence. Asbridge reconstructs the lives of the men, women and children who faced the Black Death – from ruling monarchs to peasant farmers – laying bare both the abject horror they endured and the courageous resolve they often demonstrated while striving to survive.

Uncovering a story that speaks to our own age, The Black Death highlights humankind’s capacity for compassion and resilience amidst a global crisis to explain how the medieval world confronted, and ultimately overcame, this shattering pandemic.

Thomas Asbridge is a historian of the Middle Ages, previously specializing in the study of the crusades, knighthood and chivalry, and is Reader in Medieval History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of The Crusades: The War for the Holy Land, The First Crusade: A New History and The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power behind Five English Thrones. He also wrote and presented the landmark three-part BBC Two television series The Crusades.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780241399408
ISBN 10	0241399408
Title	The Black Death
Author	Thomas Asbridge
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Books Ltd
Year published	2026-04-30
Number of pages	560
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.