A History of Epidemics in Britain, Volume 1 (of 2) / From A.D. 664 to the Extinction of Plague

A chronological survey traces epidemic disease and famine in Britain and Ireland from the first recorded pestilences in the seventh century through the mid-seventeenth-century disappearance of plague. The author examines primary sources—chronicles, manorial rolls, and state papers—to reconstruct major outbreaks, recurring famine-pestilence cycles, agricultural conditions, mortality patterns, public responses, and the evolving character of epidemics, with occasional attention to colonial voyages and foreign antecedents. Case studies treat the great medieval famines and the Black Death period, while thematic chapters analyze disease types, social and economic contributors to contagion, and how changes in documentation affect the historical account.