A series of natural disasters in the Orient during the fourteenth century caused the most devastating period of death and destruction in European history. One third of the people in Europe were killed over a period of just three years, and there was social and economic upheaval on an unparalleled scale. Philip Ziegler's acclaimed overview of this critical event synthesises the records of contemporary chroniclers and the work of later historians in a masterly volume. His accessible and readable style is complemented with contemporary illustrations to present the full horror and destruction wreaked by this disease and its contribution to the disintegration of an age.