While much of the coverage of widespread outbreaks of disease tends to focus on the immediate effects being seen, those who take a more historical view of the world well know that even larger changes – perhaps even paradigm-shifting ones – are often seen in the aftermath of pandemics. Prof. James Belich’s “The World the Plague Made” presents his examination the Black Death of the European Middle Ages and the changes it brought to the world.
“Unclean! Unclean!”
We all likely know the story – about how those with the leprosy, plague, or various other diseases were required to carry bells, clappers, or other instruments with which to draw attention to themselves, and shout “Unclean!” – thus warning any with whom they may happen to come into contact in the streets. It actually stems from a verse of the Hebrew Bible – Leviticus 13:45 to be specific, “And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.”
By now you’ve likely read the report that Richard Preston’s best selling book The Hot Zone; the Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus is to be made into a major motion picture by director Ridley Scott. Ordinarily, given the fact that the disease is now front page news in the industrialized world, […]