Obsessed with Plagues

The Great Plague: The Story of London's Most Deadly Year
by A. Lloyd Moote and Dorothy C. Moote
Johns Hopkins University Press (2004)

I'm obsessed with all things plague, influenza, and other such infectious diseases. It started in high school and only expanded as I studied genetics and molecular biology in college. When this book was published, I knew I had to read it.

The authors have done a massive amount of research to bring to light the plight of the people of London during the last epidemic of the plague (1665). They quote extensively from parish records and the Bills of Mortality (as is to be expected of any plague book), but they focus more on the diaries and letters of people in the city and suburbs of London. These men are focused on the health of his patients, the souls in his congregation, and sometimes, the size of his pocketbook. (It's to be expected that the majority of sources were written by men, given the culture of the time.)

The perfect combination of historian (A. Lloyd Moote) and microbiologist (Dorothy Moote) leads to a story riveting in the detail of daily life as it was in London in 1665 and how it was transformed (devastated) by the plague. I am amazed at the depth of the research and the impressive flow of the text. (Many books on infectious diseases read little better than tables of numbers or unwanted text books - interesting for scholars, but not generally recommended.)

If you're intrigued by London life in 1665 or interested in how epidemics can impact daily human life, you'll enjoy this book. One of my strongest tests of a book's worth (especially non-fiction) is how many more books do I want to read based on the comments in the preface, text, and endnotes. I added 16 books to my Wish List based on mentions in The Great Plague. I'd call that a success. (I know; at this rate, I'll never get through a fraction of the books I want to read.)