Although memorials to past pandemics are not as prolific as war memorials, they do exist. A scholar of visual culture provides a brief history of monuments around the world.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Bubonic plague
Displaying 21 - 40 of 91 articles
Power, plague and Christianity were closely intertwined in 17th-century New England.
Medieval Japanese poets and philosophers sought different ways of dealing with disasters and tragedies.
As ready as you are to be done with COVID-19, it’s not going anywhere soon. A historian of disease describes how once a pathogen emerges, it’s usually here to stay.
The things we find hard to balance during COVID-19 – individual freedoms versus the group, accountability versus blame, science versus personal beliefs – are centuries old and deeply human.
Societies and cultures that seem ossified and entrenched can be completely upended by pandemics, which create openings for conquest, innovation and social change.
The 17th-century plague of Italy has lessons for today: Back then, too, people broke public health laws, but there were clergymen who intervened.
We’re supposed to suppress feelings of envy. But what if the kind spurred by school shutdowns, frontline work and cramped apartments are worth exploring – and acting upon?
Masks have a chequered history in western fashion. Some silenced women in the name of beauty, others provoked sexual desire.
Written between 1348 and 1353, the Decameron is a prescription for psychological survival, a way of mentally distancing from today’s death counts and grim economic forecasts.
The COVID-19 pandemic is not the first time people have been required to wear face masks for protection. Mask-wearing has a long history, and reflects society’s sense of shared responsibility.
The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.
Australia’s island identity and attitude to border security was forged from handling pandemics since the time of federation. Here’s what we’ve learned along the way.
In medieval times natural phenomena, such as comets and eclipses, were regarded as portents of natural disasters, including plagues.
People have lived with infectious disease throughout the millennia, with culture and biology influencing each other. Archaeologists decode the stories told by bones and what accompanies them.
With the plague decimating the ranks of laborers, surviving workers started pining for higher wages. When the monarchy responded by enacting taxes and restrictive labor laws, the peasants rebelled.
Poets and the wealthy were angered by those who saw their opportunity to rise above their station after the plague.
PODCAST: Between a third and half of Europe’s population died from the Black Death. The first episode of a new podcast series from The Anthill on how the world recovered from past shocks.
It is generally assumed that this disease-control technique goes back to the 1840s, but it’s actually much older.
A medieval historian and business studies expert discuss how pandemics past and present impact on big business.
Top contributors
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Professor of Classical Studies, Brandeis University
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Professor in Infectious Diseases Epidemiology, Monash University
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Associate Professor in Medieval History, The University of Queensland
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Associate Professor of Health History, Glasgow Caledonian University
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Chair in the History of Finance and Research Dean, Prosperity and Resilience, Henley Business School, University of Reading
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Lecturer in English, Loughborough University
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PhD Candidate in History, University of Cambridge
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Professor of English and National Teaching Fellow, Birmingham City University
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Professor of History, University of Glasgow
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Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University - Newark
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Researcher in Medical Anthropology, The University of Edinburgh
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Associate Professor of History, University of Stirling
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Professor of Microbiology, School of Molecular Bioscience, University of Sydney
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Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography, Environments, Geomatics, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
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(Formerly) Senior Research Specialist, Johns Hopkins University
