Book review: ‘The Black Death’, by Thomas Asbridge (2026)

The annoying thing about studying the Black Death (besides having to read about lots of horrific things of course) is that new discoveries are being made all the time.Thanks to new scientific possibilities and archaeological finds much of what we thought we knew about the most impactful disasters in human history has been turned upside down in the last decade or so.Books & articles published just a year ago are already outdated because just a few months ago the Yersinia Pestis bacterium was traced to Siberia and only 4 years ago it was discovered that the Black Death pandemic started by a lake in Central Asia.So when a new book comes out, you have to read it asap.I was very happy to get my hands on ‘The Black Death’, by Thomas Asbridge shortly after it came out and that it is (for now) up to date. Because what we know seems to change to often and so fast, I wrote an article that hopefully helps to keep track of what we currently know about the Black Death, I will try and keep it…