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Rated 2 out of 5 by John RR from Pass on this one In my quest to get a "virtual major in Medieval History," I bought this course to round out my understanding of the Black Death topic. I was very disappointed, and if you've read the other poor reviews, you will know my feelings. The course should have been titled, "The Plague's Affect on Literature and Religion." While some historical information was provided, the focus was clearly somewhere else. In addition, Professor Doubleday's delivery was bland, with little voice inflection, clearly demonstrating little enthusiasm for the subject, although he clearly is an expert. Agree with the other one and two star reviewers, Professor Armstrong does a much better job covering the subject. Came close to returning this one, but decided after 12 chapters to "cherry pick" the remaining ones that I though might be more interesting.

Date published: 2023-05-16

Rated 2 out of 5 by John907 from Revisionist history I would have preferred to have rated the course higher than this, but I simply cannot overlook the revisionism he embraces. It almost seems as if feels he has a UK sensor over his shoulder. Simply put, he's extraordinarily kind to the Arab, Asian, and African cultures to the point of fawning. So far, just a few lectures in, he has stated that the slave trade in all of the world traveled only to Europe and that the otherwise well-documented stories of Islamist "biological" warfare didn't exist. To say the least, his obvious sensitivities and Euro self-hate casts a pale upon any credibility I would have preferred to assign him.

Date published: 2023-05-02

Rated 5 out of 5 by DocD62 from Inspired to read my neglected Canterbury Tales Whilst watching the first lecture I was unsure whether I would enjoy the rest of the course. It seemed a lot more pared down that previous courses I had watched-whether that was post pandemic effects or Professor Doubleday’s own choice is unknown but it resulted in a lecture with few picture slides plus lack of gesticulations and movements across the room. Once I got used to the Professor standing quite closely in front of the camera with minimal movement, except the necessary turns for camera changes-I actually found I concentrated better on what the speaker was saying. Prof Doubleday is undoubtedly a knowledgeable and eloquent speaker who has a passion for his subject. His enthusiasm shone through and I was especially pleased with his overview of society and using examples from art and literature to illustrate his points. As someone who loves reading but has never been fond of poems or rhyming verse ( I bought the Marshall Cavendish Great Writers Series in 1988 and the only books I had not read were Shakespeare plays and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales) his relish in the examples given of these tales encouraged me to pick up the neglected book-and I’m finding it easier and more delightful than I thought. Afterwards I may even read Sir Gawain or other Arthurian works. I was also pleased that he had departed from the traditional white Anglo Saxon male point of view so prevalent in many past historians. In fact, I got the feeling he was empathic to those who were most oppressed despite his carefully balanced points. As a dabbler in history rather than being someone very knowledgeable, this was an ideal course for me and gave me an insight into many of the inter-related social, cultural, and (to a lesser extent) political and economic issues in the Middle Ages, especially after the Black Death. And this was done in an engaging and straightforward manner. I found the professor very pleasant and interesting and often found myself listening to 3 or 4 lectures when I had only intended listening to one. My only criticism then is that the course was too short and I hope Professor Doubleday will therefore do more courses in the future. Thank you.

Date published: 2023-04-05

Rated 5 out of 5 by Gavis mom from Loved it I loved listening to and watching Dr. Doubleday. And I did learn a lot about what went on in the aftermath of the Black Death, a much more dynamic time than I had realized.

Date published: 2023-04-05

Rated 2 out of 5 by atlee from after the plague Not as advertised. nothing about resilience at all. he just seems to be interested in Chaucer and other literary figures. the data he does present, sometimes as new, is already well-known. presenter is a monotone speaker, obviously uncomfortable in front of the camera. i had hoped for economic, political, and demographic data, but none was forthcoming.

Date published: 2023-02-04

Rated 4 out of 5 by JerryR from Interesting and informative i enjoyed this course, and its breadth in covering the Plague and what came after, including so many social and political changes. The lecturer is a tad slow for my taste, so I played this at higher speed. But he knows his stuff, and I learned a lot.

Date published: 2022-10-30

Rated 5 out of 5 by McDonnell from Excellent I loved the breadth of coverage. I loved the way he seems to understand human nature and the struggles we are all going through

Date published: 2022-10-04

Rated 5 out of 5 by profdivine from Excellent Review of the Latest Interpretations Very thorough and exacting analysis of the impact of the plague despite occasional lapses into 'woke' moralizing

Date published: 2022-09-13

Overview

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales offers a complex portrait of medieval Europe amid a pandemic. It hints at a world gripped by disease and mass trauma, but one also defined by human resilience, humor, and cultural vibrancy. In After the Plague, with expert Simon Doubleday, Professor of History at Hofstra University, dive into a world that is both like and unlike our own. Using firsthand accounts, famous literary texts, new scientific evidence, and cutting-edge historical interpretations, investigate the plague’s pathology, its path across the European continent, and how it affected everything from high politics to family life in the decades that followed.

About

Simon Doubleday

This is what draws many of us back to the Middle Ages: the sense of kinship with people reaching out to us across time. Their resilience gives us hope and inspiration in our lives, too.

ALMA MATER

Harvard University

INSTITUTION

Hofstra University

Simon Doubleday is a Professor of History at Hofstra University. He received his BA in History from the University of Cambridge, where he completed a special program of study on the Black Death and its aftermath, and his PhD in Medieval History from Harvard University. He is a specialist in the history of medieval Europe, especially Spain.

Simon has received multiple grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. He has also been a fellow of the New York Public Library’s Frederick Lewis Allen Room, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is a former president of the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain. He participates regularly in leading medieval conferences and has been an invited lecturer at universities in England, Spain, Portugal, France, and the United States.

Simon’s books include The Wise King: A Christian Prince, Muslim Spain, and the Birth of the Renaissance and The Lara Family: Crown and Nobility in Medieval Spain. He has coedited a number of books, including Why the Middle Ages Matter: Medieval Light on Modern Injustice; In the Light of Medieval Spain: Islam, the West, and the Relevance of the Past; and Border Interrogations: Questioning Spanish Frontiers. He was also the founding editor of the Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies.

By This Professor

Trailer

01: Resilience: Rethinking the Black Death

As the bubonic plague rampaged across their continent, Europeans had to grapple with new and complicated moral, economic, and social realities. In the course’s inaugural lesson, explore the Black Death’s pathology and symptoms, and dive briefly into Geoffrey Chaucer’s childhood and early works to see how the initial outbreak of disease shaped the writer.

25 min

02: Medieval Globalization and the Black Death

Despite popular belief, medieval Europe was an interconnected society in the 14th century. Yet, while global connections opened new markets, they also allowed the plague to seed within and spread across the continent more easily. Investigate the public health consequences of globalization in the medieval period.

28 min

03: Death Ships: The Spread of Plague in Europe

Bustling maritime routes from England to Spain in the Middle Ages hastened the spread of disease. But what did the plague’s path on the continent look like? How quickly or slowly did it spread? Was it an urban or rural phenomenon? And how did Europeans describe the trauma and terror it caused? Zero in on Spain’s experience for potential answers.

28 min

04: Children, Plague, and Grief

The plague’s ongoing impact on European children, orphaned or killed by the disease, proved enormous. Investigate the bubonic plague’s effect on these generations of children and learn how whole towns and neighborhoods attempted to care for the orphans in their midst.

27 min

05: Famine, Flood, and Earthquakes

Catastrophe was not new to medieval men and women; they had experienced it many times over before the Black Death arrived. Explore how responses to three different kinds of disasters—famine, floods, and earthquakes—helped Europe mobilize against one of its deadliest and most devastating pandemics.

26 min

06: Plague Medicine: Opium, Gold, Poison Clouds

The medicines and methods deployed to fight the Black Death, ineffective as most ultimately were, reveal a broader turn toward scientific thinking in medieval Europe. Learn about the “plague treatises” that circulated at the time, as well as the role of religion, astrology, environment, and diet in medieval medicine.

26 min

07: Filth: How Medieval Cities Fought the Plague

The plague decimated cities with dense and crowded populations. Evaluate the impact of the Black Death on urban centers from London to Florence. Explore how and why premodern cities implemented public health and safety measures before the plague. And discover how these efforts primed urban leaders to act when catastrophe came.

26 min

08: Laughter and Joy: Boccaccio’s Decameron

Great works of literature produced during and immediately after the Black Death shed light on the thoughts, dreams, and survival strategies of Europeans reckoning with mass death. Discover how the writer Giovanni Boccaccio found humor and joy in life, expressing them in his vibrant storytelling, even amid human suffering.

25 min

09: Wives, Widows, and Witches

How did the status of women in medieval Europe change after the Black Death arrived? It’s complicated! By looking at literary characters, writers, poets, royalty, and peasants, witness how a more nuanced picture of women’s experiences emerged, as you learn about the pockets of autonomy available to some women, as well as the grim realities that affected many others.

25 min

10: Justice in the Age of Robin Hood

What did justice mean in the age of the Black Death? Harsh punishments were common in European societies, and a complex legal system had developed. Yet violent crime abounded, political corruption flourished, and people sought a deeper kind of justice in the figure of the fictional Robin Hood, as he exacted revenge on exploitative sheriffs and abbots.

26 min

11: Into the Sky: How Plague Changed Faith

Religion shaped everything from politics to the arts in medieval Europe. Yet rather than retract from or completely renounce their belief in God when faced with widespread death and despair, many Europeans strengthened their religious commitments. Investigate the period of intense religious fervor that followed the plague through Petrarch, the lovelorn Italian poet.

25 min

12: Astrology, Apocalypse, and Plague

To many, the coming of the bubonic plague signaled the apocalypse. Others pointed to a dangerous alignment of planets and stars. Explore different strands of apocalyptic thought and see how astrology—very much a respected science in the Middle Ages—legitimized these doomsday predictions.

27 min

13: Travel and Wanderlust: Sir John Mandeville

Fourteenth-century Europe witnessed lockdowns, travel restrictions, and quarantines, but that did not stop Europeans from thinking and fantasizing about international travel in strange and distant lands. Delve into Sir John Mandeville’s Travels of John Mandeville to experience the wanderlust of this period.

26 min

14: Plague in the Islamic World

Islam was an important element of medieval Spain and other parts of the medieval Mediterranean. How did they interpret the plague in accordance with their own religious and cultural values? How did they explain the Black Death, theologically and scientifically? And what might the fabulous palace of the Alhambra, in Granada, reveal about Muslim responses to the catastrophe?

26 min

15: Jewish Experiences of the Black Death

On the eve of the Black Death, many Jews had been experiencing a period of growth and prosperity, all the way from Spain to the Rhineland. The plague would change all of that. Discover the brutal effects of the plague on Jewish people across Europe, and the ways in which generations of Jews resisted a crisis that affected them in unique ways.

27 min

16: Revolution in Rome: Cola di Rienzo

The desire for freedom from feudal barons among lower-class Europeans bubbled up shortly before and exploded after the Black Death. Witness the launch of revolution in Rome in 1347, led by the ill-fated visionary leader Cola di Rienzo, to trace the eruption of popular unrest after the plague.

27 min

17: Uprising in France: The Jacquerie

Trace the medieval search for freedom in the French countryside. Unearth the real story behind the revolt known as the Jacquerie, the extreme violence that defined it, and its relationship to the plague. Grapple with the revolt’s causes and effects by examining surviving contemporary records and dramatic firsthand accounts, as well as new arguments made by medieval historians.

25 min

18: England: The Black Death and Economic Change

In England, economic activity rebounded following a period of economic decline and famine in the early 14th century, followed by the cataclysm of the Great Pestilence. Explore the market realities facing ordinary English people both before and after the plague, and probe the strategies used by a range of industries to rebuild in the face of wide scale disaster.

25 min

19: The Peasants’ Revolt: England 1381

In 1381, England exploded in the greatest rebellion in medieval history. Thousands of people descended on London, converging on the Tower, setting fire to the houses of great lords. Why did this happen? Meet the men and women involved and unravel the ideas that gave it steam.

26 min

20: The Arthurian Court of Richard II

Even as new waves of pestilence continued to strike England, Richard II’s court ushered in a period of rebirth and revitalization, which contemporaries described as a new Camelot. Get to know King Richard—his childhood, adolescence, marriage, politics, and demise—and immerse yourself in the aesthetic, artistic, and cultural achievements ushered in by his troubled but brilliant reign.

26 min

21: Plague, Heresy, and the Questioning Spirit

The same rebellious spirit that characterized the peasant revolts spilled over into religious and theological arenas. Kick off this lesson by seeing how the Monk and Friar from The Canterbury Tales reveal the problems that plagued the church in the medieval period. Then, explore reform efforts leveled at the church and the emergence of a new spirit of questioning which would last into the age of the Reformation.

26 min

22: The Passionate Mystic: Margery Kempe

The plague ushered in a period of mysticism in Europe. Catholics across the continent, unsatisfied with the formalities of Catholicism, searched for a direct, personal, and passionate connection to God. Examine the passion of the mystic Margery of Kempe as a case study to understand the spiritual environment in post-plague Europe.

26 min

23: The Canterbury Tales and the Specter of Death

Chaucer’s masterpiece, written at the end of our period, shows how European authors grappled with the enormity of the plague in their works. Examine stories like “The Clerk’s Tale,” “The Tale of Melibee,” and “The Man of Law’s Tale” that highlight stoicism and human resilience in the face of extreme adversity and misfortune.

26 min

24: The Plague and Us: Reaching across Time

Finish the course with some final thoughts about what the plague and its ultimate impact on Europe reveal about the dynamism of the medieval period as well as the strength of human spirit across time. Explore how the experience of the plague is captured in modern art, film, and literature.

30 min