Many diseases throughout history have wiped out entire families, villages or even towns, but nothing even comes close to the death and destruction that would become known as the Black Death. It made periodic appearances throughout the centuries, dying out for some and reemerging for others. Today, modern medicine can cure this disease, but even so, hundreds of people still die from this disease every year, even in America. So, what is it and how did it shape world history? We cover all that and more here in Episode 39.

Books:

• Medieval Europe: A Short History by Judith M. Bennett and C. Warren Hollister
• Death in the Middle Ages by T.S.R. Boase
• The Black Death by Philip Ziegler
• The Waning of the Middle Ages by Johan Huizinga
• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Dafoe