Return of the Black Death : The World's Greatest Serial Killer

by Scott, Susan; Duncan, Christopher

• ISBN13: 9780470090008
• ISBN10: 0470090006
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-06-14
• Publisher: WILEY

Summary

If the twenty-first century seems an unlikely stage for the return of a 14th-century killer, the authors of Return of the Black Death argue that the plague, which vanquished half of Europe, has only lain dormant, waiting to emerge again-perhaps, in another form. At the heart of their chilling scenario is their contention that the plague was spread by direct human contact (not from rat fleas) and was, in fact, a virus perhaps similar to AIDS and Ebola. Noting the periodic occurrence of plagues throughout history, the authors predict its inevitable re-emergence sometime in the future, transformed by mass mobility and bioterrorism into an even more devastating killer.

Author Biography

<b>Professor Christopher Duncan</b> is Emeritus Professor of Zoology at Liverpool University. He has written over 200 published papers and seven books. <p> <b>Susan Scott</b> is a Social Historian specializing in demography. She has written 30 published papers and three books.<br> Susan Scott and Christopher Duncan have spent years analysing the series of plagues that ravaged Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(10)
Chapter 1 Birth of a Serial Killer	11	(24)
Chapter 2 The Black Death Crosses the Channel	35	(12)
Chapter 3 After the Black Death: The French Connection	47	(12)
Chapter 4 Tentacles of the Plague	59	(14)
Chapter 5 England under Siege	73	(30)
Chapter 6 Portrait of an Epidemic	103	(18)
Chapter 7 The Great Plague of London	121	(16)
Chapter 8 How Bugs and Germs Operate	137	(16)
Chapter 9 Building an Identikit of the Killer	153	(12)
Chapter 10 Debunking History	165	(6)
Chapter 11 The Biology of Bubonic Plague: A Myth Revisited	171	(14)
Chapter 12 DNA Analysis: A Red Herring	185	(6)
Chapter 13 The True Story of a Historic Village	191	(16)
Chapter 14 The Surprising Link between AIDS and the Black Death	207	(8)
Chapter 15 Assembling the Jigsaw Puzzle	215	(14)
Chapter 16 The Black Death in Hiding	229	(16)
Chapter 17 Why Did Haemorrhagic Plague Suddenly Disappear?	245	(4)
Chapter 18 The Dangers of Emergent Diseases	249	(16)
Chapter 19 The Return of the Black Death?	265	(22)
Chapter 20 Is There Something more Terrible than the Black Death?	287	(14)
Further Reading	301	(4)
Index	305