This is a classic study of a disease which had a profound impact on the history of Tudor and Stuart England. Plague was both a personal affliction and a social calamity, regularly decimating urban populations. Paul Slack vividly describes the stresses which plague imposed on individuals, families, and whole communities, and the ways in which people tried to explain, control, and come to terms with it.
List of tables; List of figures; Preface; Conventions; Part I. Perspectives: Disease and society; Attitudes and actions; Part II. The dimensions of the problem; The chronology of epidemics 1485-1665; The local context; The urban impact; Metropolitan crises; Counting the costs; Part III. The social response: Public authority and a policy for control; Controversy and compromise; Towns under stress; Police and people; The end of plague 1665-1722; Conclusion; Abbreviations; Notes; Index
