{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060006935?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0060006935","authors":["John Kelly"],"book_id":"9780060006938","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-great-mortality-9780060006938","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060006938.jpg?v=caa134607e6fe874","description":"“Powerful, rich with details, moving, humane, and full of important lessons for an age when weapons of mass destruction are loose among us.” — Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb The Great Plague is one of the most compelling events in human history—even more so now, when the notion of plague has never loomed larger as a contemporary public concern. The plague that devastated Asia and Europe in the 14th century has been of never-ending interest to both scholarly and general readers. Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story: how many people died; how farm output and trade declined. But statistics can’t convey what it was like to sit in Siena or Avignon and hear that a thousand people a day are dying two towns away. Or to have to chose between your own life and your duty to a mortally ill child or spouse. Or to live in a society where the bonds of blood and sentiment and law have lost all meaning, where anyone can murder or rape or plunder anyone else without fear of consequence. In The Great Mortality , author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780060006938","publication_date":"20060131","publisher":"HarperCollins","slug":"the-great-mortality","subtitle":"An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time","title":"The Great Mortality"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"MED022090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Infectious Diseases","score":0.765,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HEA039040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Contagious Diseases","score":0.7375,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"JNF024020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Illness & Injury","score":0.7124,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"MED022090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Infectious Diseases","score":0.765,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HEA039040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Contagious Diseases","score":0.7375,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"JNF024020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Illness & Injury","score":0.7124,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS037000","confidence_band":"high","label":"World History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS037010","confidence_band":"high","label":"Medieval History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED022090","confidence_band":"high","label":"Infectious Diseases","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED028000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Epidemiology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED039000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Medical History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"MED052000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Microbiology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SCI008000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Biology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SCI034000","confidence_band":"high","label":"History of Science","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Infectious Diseases","score":0.765,"slug":"infectious-diseases"},{"label":"Contagious Diseases","score":0.7375,"slug":"contagious-diseases"},{"label":"Illness & Injury","score":0.7124,"slug":"illness-injury"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in the Black Death's human impact"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Philip Ziegler"],"book_id":"9780061718984","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780061718984.jpg?v=cb6e2aed64ca2eb8","score":0.8327,"title":"The Black Death","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780061718984"},{"authors":["Roberta Edwards"],"book_id":"9780593383650","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593383650.jpg?v=e78fc0b15bcb8e02","score":0.7851,"title":"What Was the Plague?","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593383650"},{"authors":["John Hatcher"],"book_id":"9780306815713","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780306815713.jpg?v=c8b74ab9a33e1237","score":0.7791,"title":"The Black Death","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780306815713"},{"authors":["James Cross Giblin"],"book_id":"9780064461955","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780064461955.jpg?v=b25d071e471927f7","score":0.7658,"title":"When Plague Strikes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780064461955"},{"authors":["Gail Jarrow"],"book_id":"9781620917381","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781620917381.jpg?v=98f57900d577c767","score":0.7565,"title":"Bubonic Panic","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781620917381"},{"authors":["Stuart J. Borsch"],"book_id":"9780292722132","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780292722132.jpg?v=f4e2bd3ac3851bad","score":0.7533,"title":"The Black Death in Egypt and England","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780292722132"},{"authors":["John M. Barry"],"book_id":"9780143036494","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780143036494.jpg?v=363346ec37e3a5a8","score":0.7501,"title":"The Great Influenza","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780143036494"},{"authors":["Beth Skwarecki"],"book_id":"9781440596278","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781440596278.jpg?v=9977e664f93e9395","score":0.7356,"title":"Outbreak!","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781440596278"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history of pandemics"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:books about pandemics"],"label":"About","score":0.1333,"slug":"about"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history books for adults"],"label":"Adults","score":0.1173,"slug":"adults"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:books about the black plague"],"label":"Black","score":0.1007,"slug":"black"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history of health disasters"],"label":"Health","score":0.0682,"slug":"health"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: The Black Death, Social breakdown, Mass mortality.","Themes: History, Adults, Black.","Reading lane: Infectious Diseases and Contagious Diseases."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.85,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["For readers interested in the Black Death's human impact"],"themes":["The Black Death","Social breakdown","Mass mortality"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":11841,"goodreads_reviews_count":1113,"quality_score":0.9525}}