Kelly attributes certain benefits to the plague. Peasants earned more and had more land available for tillage. Crop yields rose for the next 50 years as a result. Female workers had more opportunities and better wages. Technology increased. The demand for books led to the development of movable type because there were so few monks to copy out books in the time honored method of reproducing them. New mining techniques were developed. Ships got bigger, but were designed so that fewer men were required to man them. Higher education saw the rise of new colleges. Four were created at Cambridge alone. Their charters frequently mentioned the shortage of priest-educators as the reason for their creation. According to Kelly, the plague "may have saved Europe from an indefinite future of subsistence existence." Caught in a "Malthusian deadlock," Europe had too many people for limited resources. The plague eliminated consumers, setting the stage for the benefits noted above and broke the deadlock.
The Great Mortality bills itself as an "Intimate History" of the plague. Instead, it has a more academic approach with anecdotes thrown in to popularize the material. Kelly breaks no new ground, drawing heavily upon the extensive literature about the plague. Had the narrative been more straightforward, this would have been a highly recommended book. Nevertheless, it is well worth the effort to read for it does contain a wealth of material previously scattered across the literature and not readily accessible to the lay reader. For a more intimate, personalized account of life with the plague, read the novel, Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks. Set in 1666 in a small English village, the novel is based on a real incident and a real village. Norman Cantor's In the Wake of the Plague covers roughly the same period as Mortality, but concentrates on England in a more straightforward and accessible narrative. In fact, Kelly seems to have drawn on Wake for much of his information.
John Kelly has written, or co-written, ten books on science, medicine, and human behavior. He holds a graduate degree in European history and lives in New York City.
John Kelly has written, or co-written, ten books on science, medicine, and human behavior. He holds a graduate degree in European history and lives in New York City.
