Friday, June 27, 2008

A close look at apocalypse ...

... 'The Black Death,' John Hatcher's Remarkable History of the Plague.

Historians have long posited a bewildering array of consequences of the plague. The reduced population made the peasantry more valuable as workers, made them aware of their value, gave them muscle in the market, and gave rise to social mobility. Language changed as people moved across the land, and dialect was diluted. More land became available. Food supplies increased. The failure of the church to offer good reason for the pestilence weakened its hold, giving new power to skepticism and secularism.

Not all bad, after all.

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