The Mootes write with an impressive combination of storytelling and scholarship... Their work provides an example that local historians might consider copying for other locations in Britain. Ancestors Magazine The Mootes' enthusiasm at their archival discoveries flavours their lively account of the Plague Year. London Review of Books This is now the best book available on London's 1665 plague epidemic. ... Read moreSixteenth Century Journal An extraordinary and insightful account of life in London during 1665, when nearly 100,000 people died of the plague... The story they tell is of two Londons, the working poor of the 'alleys and cellars and tenements,' and the rich, titled, and merchant classes, and how they became 'interdependent' during 1665... An epilogue on the development of microbiology and antibiotic cures forcefully argues that modern society still needs to be better prepared for future infectious diseases. Publishers Weekly Extraordinarily accomplished... A book of rare distinction, one that is able to analyze a city in crisis while never losing sight of the individual lives contained within it. From the tiniest microbe to the most blustery regal proclamation, there seem to be no aspect of Pestered London to which the Mootes did not have access. Guardian In this excellent book, husband and wife Lloyd and Dorothy Moote, a historian and biologist, respectively, have brilliantly captured the human, medical, and political dimensions of the Great Plague in London and the surrounding areas. New England Journal of Medicine The Great Plague is a great read. The authors skillfully integrate evidence from a number of sources, and their enthusiasm for their subject is infectious.
Tom Beaumont James, PhD, FSA JAMA In this crowded field, this jewel of a book brings a new dimension by telling the story of how the rich and the poor who stayed rather than escaped survived rather than died, maintained order rather than succumbed to chaos, and provided support and sustenance rather than betrayal and impedance. Choice This is a great story of the great plague of London in the 1660s... Fascinating. Journal of the American Association of Forensic Dentists The authors... have produced a readable and reasonable account that should now be the first choice of readers who want to know the story.
J.N. Hays Medical History Show Less