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

Rating:
Summary: A Whole New Look that Makes Total Sense!
Review: Scott and Duncan have quite obviously done their homework! I can't imagine the time (& tedium) it must have taken to sift through all those records, but it was well worth the effort. I believe Scott and Duncan have seriously found the genuine cause of the Black Death. The way they present their information makes it seem as though it were staring us in the face all along. It's hard to believe so many scientists have clung to false assumptions in the face of what seems to be overwhelming evidence (just consider Iceland alone!). I simply won't be able to equate the Black Death with the Bubonic/Pneumonic ever again.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: The core of this book is the authors' convincing demonstration that the Black Death, which killed perhaps half the population of Europe during the Middle Ages, was not bubonic plaque, as has long been thought and taught, but a different, unknown, and far more dangerous virus. This is a difference that makes a difference. Modern medicine understands, can quickly detect, and can effectively treat outbreaks of bubonic plaque, making a major re-emergence very unlikely. But if the mysterious virus behind the Black Death, or a close cousin, were to re-emerge, the results could be catastrophic, as the authors clearly show.

The authors reached this conclusion through patient sleuthing through ancient death records in towns and villages devastated by the Black Death. By tracing the exact lines of transmission, they were able to show that the virus had a long incubation period, during most of which people acted as unknowing carriers of the disease. By the time they developed its horrifying symptoms, it was too late for them and for those people they had crossed paths with.

Perhaps because the authors' historical research was so important in guiding them to their radical new conclusion, they devote the first half of the book to it. Readers who make it through this sometimes repetitious recitation will find the second half of the book much more rewarding and thought-provoking

Robert Adler, author of Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome; and Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation