[MR] History Channel Article on the Black Death

[Evan da Collaureo]

> New study believes rats were not to blame for the Black Death.  Here's the link.
> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/17/black-death-rats-off-hook

As a followup, here's a song about the same topic:
http://seananmcguire.com/songbook.php?id=117

The composer (also a Hugo-nominated SF&F author) says about the song: "Yes, this is a teaching song. Yes, about the Black Death. Yes, I need help. All facts taken from Return of the Black Death: The World's Greatest Serial Killer, which you should totally read."

Here's a link to the book she references: http://books.google.com/books/about/Return_of_the_Black_Death.html?id=N7buAAAAMAAJ

Given some of the records we have, and also given the way records were kept (or not) at the time under those circumstances, I would not be surprised to find that "the plague" was really three or even four diseases that hit around the same time in various areas -- with pneumonic plague *and* some kind of hemorrhagic fever being the top two on the list.

Evan