In The Black Death: New Lessons from Recent Research, celebrated medievalist Dorsey Armstrong corrects explanations of the famous medieval pandemic that are now known to be inaccurate and offers a more robust description of plague biology. COVID-19 isn’t likely to be humanity’s last experience with a zoonotic disease, so what can we learn now from these two pandemics that could help us in the future?
The Black Death: New Lessons from Recent Research
Revisit the past to examine what the medieval experience of the Black Death can teach us about our own world and the science of disease.
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Vince893 from
Platform for Covid Dogma
The first course, which focused on the Black Death and was created in 2015, was generally better, despite the professor acknowledging in this second course (released in 2021) that it contained inaccuracies regarding major events. However, in the 2021 course, she appears to use the historical content as a platform to promote her strongly held opinions on COVID mandates.
Date published: 2025-01-04
Rated 5 out of
5
by
BaruchCXXI from
Contemporary Relevance
I have for, the purposes of this review to establish first my provenance and secondly the context in which I last visited the course revision of the Black Death, but there is a third facet, a contemporary perspective, and that was summoned up my response to some criticism in comments and reviews on all the courses I have watched on which I have commented. In respect to my provenance; I was before Covid an active veteran. I had retired from my profession as a Ecologist, and had found diversion in writing on the 'British Scene' for a number of European Newspapers. I took a degree which approximates to a masters Degree in The History of Ideas in a French University. The Great Courses was a gift, and one which I have renewed every years because Covid and Arthritis limited my mobility and I had given up driving. Thus the Great Courses was a means of keeping my mind active so I did not turn to the Great Courses for 'Information' as much as for stimulation. I was educated in Europe, In France, thus the range of my secondary education was broader than that in the UK, but not the USA. Thus I approach this course both with a biological and an Historical background.
My third dimension is a measure of irritation at some of the remarks and reviews of these courses, because they seemed at times absurd, or limited in perspective. Partly this is because with some experience of being a student and a teacher I understand lectures not as the last word on any topic but as a perspective, as a reflection on considerable erudition, and a launch pad for further thought and reading on a subject by the subscriber. One becomes, with that interest and from that experience, used to different styles of teaching, and one also becomes used to realising that the most accomplished style of Teaching is not eventually always the most stimulating. As audience one is implicated, but a lecture has a more enduring impact than style, and that is content,. and secondarily information, or knowledge.
What prompted me, as a Scientist and an Historian, was a remark I read on this 'corrective' course on the Black Death. I have followed two others provided by Wondrium, as well as this by Professor Armstrong. I have had experience of many of the courses from the Early Middle Ages to Epic disasters in Civil Engineering. Every one seems to me to be a success, some teachers were more dynamic in style, but all of them were formidable in their scope, in their knowledge and in communication. I have spent two days attending a hoe made conference on the Renaissance and Modern Europe. The conference consisted of isolated lectures provided from those courses that impinged on this theme including one from this amended course, and I have discovered and earned from this conference three aspects that interest me, but only one on which I shall dilate here.
That is, important as the Renaissance was as a dynamic intellectual project from Petrarch to Descartes, what precipitated the European World, [not denying that it was a Pandemic] into a period of profound change was the Black Death. Its ramifications, its consequences, its significance and relevance to a society currently experiencing a crisis such as we have experienced on account of Covid, were profound, but one of the most potent has been that the entire economic and social system and its perspectives were disrupted and eventually destroyed the Medieval dispensation, it destroyed feudalism, and together with the printing press, and Gunpowder it transformed the world to which society was compelled to respond. It transformed Politics, it proved to be the most dynamic source of innovation and a stimulus to the patterns of belief.
I have written elsewhere that every technology and system of social management has benefits and disbenefits which are commensurate, although they manifest themselves at different levels of organisation from the cell to the planet. The Black Death vindicates this principle. The climate change, bad harvest social conditions, economic systems, a, Trade, were disrupted and dislocated by the inconvenience of the flea of the Black Rat. The effects endured as did the sporadic recurrent outburst of plague which endured for four centuries. Margaret Deansley in her book on the Economic History of Britain considers the switch of emphasis of trade so that the UK did more trade with Scandinavia changed the ecology and distribution of Ratus ratus norvegicus [the Brown Rat] the flea of which behaves rather differently. These details are not incidental. If Science and History have more than academic interest it is by applying the lessons derived and Professor Armstrong did just that. It is alarming, reading the criticism, that people come to these courses merely for information, to know rather than to think. One commentator said openly that the latter part of this course was a vehicle for 'Progressive Ideas.' No! It was concerned with Phylactery measures by which the peoples of the world should plan for the occurrence and recurrence of such pandemics, that the lessons learned can be applied, and I can think of nothing more rational than to derive lessons from a collaboration of Science, History, Geography, Genetics, Demography so as to be prepared for such an eventuality, and accordingly this course is valuable far beyond academia, far beyond general interest, it is applied Ecology, it is applied Social Science, it is applied Geography and what else do we embark upon any study, any research, but to address potential problems and solve them.
The corollary to the law adumbrated above, is that it is the task of government to rectify the impacts on society of major impacts, to prevent or ameliorate the consequences, and that is the progress of Science, it is is not amenable to the sort of factious comment that renders that particular critic ism not only erroneous but absurd, and not only cavilling, but a menace to education rather than qualifications for personal advancement. I think this course was not only interesting but an incentive to think of our own situation, potentially on the cusp of another pandemic.
Date published: 2024-12-22
Rated 5 out of
5
by
Dh67 from
Great course!
This course was very informative, the information was presented in an engaging manner. Truly enjoyed the course and the follow up course as well.
Date published: 2024-07-19
Rated 3 out of
5
by
EngineerinVA from
Update of Previous Courses
This is an unusual offering within The Great Courses (TGC) repertoire in that it is a follow-up and, in a sense, a correction to an earlier TGC offering. Dr. Armstrong and TGC published The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague in 2016. In the subsequent six years, much research into the black death has changed some of the conclusions in that earlier offering; this second offering aims to set the record straight. Although intended to correct her previous course, this course also updates other TGC offerings on the same subject.
This is a short series. It consists of only seven lectures, one of which is only 17 minutes long. It is closer to a seminar than a course. Further, the last two lectures tend to stray away from the stated topic of the Black Death and into the 21st Century American politics of COVID-19.
I’m a fanboy of Dr. Armstrong; I’ll purchase any TGC offering by her. However, I prefer that she stick to Middle Ages history.
The course guide is a bullet summary of the lectures. It contains a bibliography but not a timeline nor a glossary. Given the medical terms, a glossary may have been helpful.
I used the video version of the course. The visual aids are not crucial. It would be perfectly acceptable to listen to this course in audio-only mode such as while commuting or jogging.
The course was published in 2022.
Date published: 2024-06-18
Rated 1 out of
5
by
VA listener from
The course was not about the Black Death
The instructor, after three lectures provding updates on new ddicoveries on the way plague broke out and spred, then lectured listeners on modern politically oriented message on Covid and how modern societies should be run. This was not the course we thought was sold.
Date published: 2024-05-11
Rated 2 out of
5
by
jon27 from
Good and Bad
I found all of the lectures presented clearly, however, the last three lectures where disappointing. Other reviewers mention that this course could have been comprised of three 30-minute lectures relating to the Black Death. I agree. I found the first four lectures rewarding but found it really hard to get through the last three.The last three chapters with included a focus on Covid provided a format for the professor to present her " progressive" political views.
Date published: 2024-03-18
Rated 1 out of
5
by
Grabar from
Not good
I couldn't finish it... the final two lectures descended into being told how morally pathetic people are, without an ounce of grace. I wish that the presenter had simply stuck with telling the history without the moralizing.
Date published: 2024-01-15
Rated 5 out of
5
by
JerryO100 from
Brilliant and extremely useful
I watch all of the programs that Professor Armstrong presents. However, I will share this program with all my family, friends, and acquaintances. The corrections to the first program were very good and showed the value of revisiting subjects you believe you know well. However, the two final episodes point out how the information is pragmatically valuable and can be used to improve the civic response to a calamity like the current pandemic. Revisiting the mistakes of the first societies that dealt with the black death and the brilliant solutions that were developed to protect the public health of the survivors is inspiring. I think this program should be experienced by health departments, hospitals, police, clergy, civic leaders, and so on.
Date published: 2024-01-04
Overview
About
Dorsey Armstrong is a Professor of English and Medieval Literature at Purdue University, where she is also the head of the Department of English. She received her PhD in Medieval Literature from Duke University. She is the executive editor of the academic journal Arthuriana, which publishes cutting-edge research on the legend of King Arthur, from its medieval origins to its modern enactments. She is a recipient of the Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, Purdue’s top undergraduate teaching honor. Her other Great Courses include The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague and The Medieval World.
Trailer
01: Reassessing the Black Death
As we deal with our own 21st-century pandemic, the curious among us have looked back to the 14th-century pandemic known as the Black Death. You’ll be surprised to discover how many of our assumptions and conclusions about that time have been upended as new methods of scientific inquiry have been applied to old questions.
21 min
02: A Deeper Dive into Rat and Flea Behavior
A deeper understanding of rat and flea biology and behavior along with the 21st-century ability to examine ancient DNA have allowed us to correct long-held assumptions about the origin of the three known plague pandemics. Follow the fascinating scientific trail that now allows us to state with certainty where the plague did—and did not—originate.
26 min
03: Human-to-Human Plague Transmission
Medieval peoples suffered from the unpredictability of the pandemic as it exploded in some seasons and locations, died down, and then showed up again years later. Explore what we have recently learned about transmission of the four types of plague—bubonic, pneumonic, septicemic, and digestive—and how that affected the timing and intensity of outbreaks.
17 min
04: Plague, Grain, and the Mongols
We now know the grain trade was responsible for the movement of black rats and their fleas around the medieval world. Learn how a serious increase in European urbanization and well-established trade networks set the continent up for a devastating fall once the Mongols pushed west into the area.
31 min
05: The Big Bang of the Black Death
Scientists have discovered that what gave the Black Death its stunning lethality and transmissibility was a mutation in a bacterial strain about 100 years before the plague showed up in Europe. Explore the genetics of Yersinia pestis and learn how scientists have confirmed that plague came into the European world only one time.
26 min
06: The Fate of the Plague’s Survivors
We now understand better than ever that the experience of a pandemic—both then and now—is not a singular event or occurrence. It is an ongoing trauma, and we have no way to know when it will be over. Examine the inherent societal flaws that pandemics reveal and consider whether any of our social, economic, medical, and political safety nets held up the way we had hoped.
22 min
07: The Old World Falls Away
For those who survived the upheaval of this medieval pandemic, European life—and even the understanding of the very purpose of government—had forever changed. Study the many ways in which society responded to this massive depopulation and its associated problems by looking at the social networks that were developed to better combat plague and provide relief and support.
24 min
