Although Giblin's book covers only three of the many disastrous plagues that have devastated the world, he captures the horror and hopelessness that their victims must have felt. Each one brought death in a horribly painful form, and each altered the societies it struck. The Black Death found most of its victims among the very poorest people. Estimates vary on the number of people who perished, but the plague left a population that was much depleted. In the years following, laborers were at a premium. They could leave serfdom and receive higher wages than ever before. They enjoyed a higher standard of living than was possible for them earlier.

The Catholic Church, the most powerful force in the lives of the people, never quite regained its former influence. It had represented itself as the only source of God's grace. Faced with a calamity of this magnitude...