Description: This sweeping narrative explores history's first pandemic--a plague that occurred seven centuries before the Black Death which killed millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Maps.
Review Quotes: "Ambitious and learned . . . readers will be swept along by the strong current of Mr. Rosen's good natured erudition."
--The Economist
--The Guardian (UK) "History written with passion, panache, and an appealing bit of attitude."
--Kirkus Reviews "Impressive study of the bubonic plague and its impact on history. . . . Eccentric and erudite . . . a massively ambitious work."
--The Guardian (London)