Great “great course”

I’m a mailman for the USPS and honestly listening to music gets old real fast. I’ve listened to over 70 audiobook over the last year many of them being Great Courses. This particular Great Course has me hooked from the beginning. The professor is very knowledgeable and you really get the sense she loves what she is lecturing about. I learned a lot and i hope other people who like to learn new things choose this one.

58 people found this helpful

Tragic & fascinating

Absolutely loved this lecture series. I can't stop recommending it to friends.
We learn so little in school about plagues - and certainly not enough about the social effects. I had no idea how much the Black Death shaped the world - not just the millions dead, but the arts, religion, social norms.

23 people found this helpful

"The horseman on the white horse was plague"

You would be surprised at how many times plague comes up in every day conversation.

I finished Dorsey Armstrong, PhD’s The Great Courses “The Black Death: The World’s Most Devastating Plague” (2016) about a month ago, and I have been too busy with summer camping and hiking to finish writing the review. It’s surprisingly relevant for a disease that first appeared several centuries BCE (Before Common Era).

There it was at Kern River, where the United States Forest Service posted a notice to be careful about feeding mice and rats because they carry plague and Hantavirus. (Actually, thanks to Dr. Dorsey, I know that isn’t quite accurate: fleas that live on mice and rats that can carry plague.) The plague worked its way into a political conversation about fire and fury, death and destruction. Thanks to an earlier listen to Dr. Robert Garland’s The Great Courses “Living History: Experiencing Great Events of the Ancient and Medieval Worlds” (2015), I could compare the most significant military victories and losses from millennia ago – and discuss how the plague was a far more lethal enemy. There it was a few days ago in the news with the alarming headline, “Fleas are testing positive for the plague in parts of Arizona” ABC News, August 12, 2017). Well, of course they do – they probably always do.

Plague is fascinating and frightening in an almost atavistic way. We as humans have a collective memory and a shared horror of a time when an estimated one third to one half of the world’s population died horribly agonizing, but fairly quick deaths. Dr. Dorsey persuasively argues that there were probably three types of plague active: bubonic; septicemic; and pneumonic. She also points out that there wasn’t a single plague year or even several years: it kept recurring, spreading as ancient Greeks and Romans, and then later other Europeans traveled and traded.

Plague is endemic (meaning it’s found routinely in a certain area), but not pandemic (meaning it’s a disease prevalent in a whole country, or the world). It still scares, but it should only scare to the extent that anyone potentially exposed to plague who shows the signs and symptoms described in “The Black Death” should make sure their doctor knows. It’s treatable by antibiotics like Cipro.

I noticed that there’s a The Great Courses “Mysteries of the Microscopic World” (2011) by Dr. Bruce E. Fleury that features a lecture on the Influenza Epidemic of 1918. I think I’m going to have to try that one next.

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64 people found this helpful

informative, interesting, well organized

I really enjoyed the lecturer, Dr Armstrong has an enthusiasm that is infectious. her interest is supported by and informed with research.
Although I typically don't enjoy listening to the insertion of quotations and source citations she does this in an non-obstructive way.
I will definitely search for other lectures by Dr Armstrong.

25 people found this helpful

A Timely Listen

AT A GLANCE:
An excellent introduction to history's deadliest illness.

CONTENT:
This survey course starts out very generally with questions of the cause, extent and nature of the plague. She eventually moves into more specific topics like medieval medicine, the difference in national reactions, and the effects on contemporary artwork, literature and the Catholic Church. There is some over-simplification and repetition of material, though not enough to lessen its value.
The lack of course notes is painfully felt in this version and makes the information harder to retain.

NARRATOR:
Professor Armstrong is easy to listen to, conversational in tone, and intelligible even up to 1.4x playback speed.

OVERALL:
It seems fitting to listen through this course during the COVID-19 pandemic, as there are many overlapping themes and social anxieties. The lectures are generally very good and cover all of the expected areas for the subject.

9 people found this helpful

Excellent course

This was done very well. I appreciated some of the repetition in various areas so that I could really understand. Dorsey Armstrong was engaging and thoroughly knew her material. I didn’t care for the derision in her voice when discussing the church and perceived reactions to the plague. My preference would have been for her to continue delivering the information without that tone, since it detracted from the lesson. But all in all: very good!

7 people found this helpful

Extremely Interesting

I liked how the spread of the plague and its social, economic and political effects were described. Worth the listen in every way.

6 people found this helpful

Great lectures - Need lecture names on track title

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, engaging and informative

What other book might you compare The Black Death: The World's Most Devastating Plague to and why?

any of Philip Daileaders lectures on the middle ages.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Not really movie material

Any additional comments?

I love the great courses - BUT PLEASE PUT CHAPTER NAMES IN THE TRACK TITLE. I enjoy going back to specific chapters and re-listening, and not having titles, just 'Chapter 1' makes this more difficult.

23 people found this helpful

Outstanding recount

Loved it, congratulations on excellent content, speech, structure and form.
Definitely stands out as a reference for plague history.

5 people found this helpful

Indeed I shall renounce the superfluous use of the word "indeed"

That is actually my only criticism of this course, and even then it's only mildly annoying and affects only portions of the story. Professor Armstrong has a great delivery. She enunciates clearly, has a good cadence, and weaves a masterful tale of intrigue, history, and science. She skillfully draws connections between events in the 14th century and traces their evolution up to modern times. She makes compelling arguments to support her connections, and she does so in a manner that is both scholarly and entertaining. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is interested in science, sociology, religion, economics, or, of course, history.

16 people found this helpful