For this short essay (400 to 600 words), compare and contrast the social impact of the Great Plague of London in 1665 with that of the current Covid-19 pandemic. Your starting point is the document in the Sourcebook, 5.1 Daniel Defoes Journal of the Plague Year (1722). Though published well after the events, it is the work of an excellent journalist and thought to be based on on Defoe’s interviews with his uncle who witnessed and survived the events in London. Be sure to make direct use of Defoe in your essay. (For example, on page 25 is a description of some of the quack remedies advertised to prevent catching plague, to compare with some quack ideas that hit the media as to how to treat Covid.) The inset of the bills of Mortality on page 24 shows the number of deaths month by month (peaking late summer/early autumn), which could be compared with what you have witnessed in the rise and fall of Covid-19 deaths in the US over the past two years. Below are listed several online articles that appeared in the first year of the pandemic making parallels with the Great Plague of 1665. Even more helpful will be the three videos listed at the bottom.
I am more than happy if you want to make use of other academic articles, but take care that you have the right plague. The Great Plague of London was in 1665. That was a very different experience than the Black Death that hit all of Western Europe and arrived in England in 1348.
For this assignment there are also some useful articles online from this year:
David Roberts, Coronavirus: Defoes account of the Great Plague of 1665 has startling parallels with today (April 6, 2020) found at TheConversation.com
Geoffrey Kabat, In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Daniel Defoes account of Londons 1665 bubonic plague offers a shock of recognition (July 21, 2020) at geneticliteracyproject.org
Utteeyo Dasgupta, et al, Persistent Patterns of Behavior: two infectious disease outbreaks 350 years apart (20 October 2020) in onlinelibrary.wiley.com
An article in voxeu is best seen online as it has great graphics showing spread in time:
Neil Cummins, et al, Coronavirus from the perspective of 17th century plague (21 April 2020) in VOXEU
A three part series titled The Great Plague shown recently on Channel 5 is available for viewing on MY5. It was shown 17-19 November 2020. It is presented by Xand van Tulleken (a medical historian), Raksha Dave (an archaeologyist) and John Sergeant (a retired highly respected former BBC journalist).
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