Books, Journals, New Media Section Editor:
Harriet S. Meyer, MD, Contributing Editor, JAMA;
David H. Morse, MS, University of Southern California, Norris Medical Library,
Journal Review Editor.
The Great Plague is a great read. The authors
skillfully integrate evidence from a number of sources, and their enthusiasm
for their subject is infectious.
The clever use of a range of sources attached to persons well-known
beyond the area of scholarship associated with plague—Samuel Pepys,
John Evelyn, the Reverend Ralph Josselin, and others—adds gravitas to
the unfolding story while providing familiarity with the chosen cast. The
authors account of the plague year is much more historical than the gripping
but spurious and journalistic Journal of the Plague Year compiled by Daniel Defoe circa 1720. A. Lloyd Moote is a historian
and Dorothy Moote is a microbiologist with professional experience of the
beginnings of the AIDS epidemic in Los Angeles, as well as with an enzootic
of plague in the squirrel population there. Both had previously studied aspects
of the history of plague.
James TB. The Plague. JAMA. 2004;292(17):2153-2159. doi:10.1001/jama.292.17.2158