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Product Description
Product Description
In July 1518 a terrifying and mysterious plague struck the medieval city of Strasbourg. Hundreds of men and women danced wildly, day after day, in the punishing summer heat. Their feet blistered and bled, and their limbs ached with fatigue, but they simply could not stop. By the time the epidemic subsided, heat and exhaustion had claimed an untold number of lives, leaving thousands bewildered and bereaved, and an enduring enigma for future generations. This book explains why Strasbourg's dancing plague took place. In doing so it leads us into a largely vanished world, evoking the sights, sounds, aromas, diseases and hardships, the fervent super naturalism and the desperate hedonism of the late medieval world. Not only a fascinating historical detective story, "A Time to Dance, A Time to Die" is also an exploration into the strangest capabilities of the human mind and the extremes to which fear and irrationality can lead us.
About the Author
John Waller is an historian of medicine at Michigan State University. Educated at theuniversities of Oxford and London, he is the author of several other books,including The Real Oliver Twist (Icon, 2005), The Discovery of the Germ (Icon, 2002) and Fabulous Science (OUP, 2002). He lives with his wife and daughter in Michigan.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This very readable and satisfying book concerns an outbreak of what appeared to be Chorea, or St Vitus Dance in 16th century Strasbourg. Whereas chorea is usually a symptom of serious illness, the Strasbourg outbreak seems to have been something like mass hysteria, involving hundreds of people and lasting for some weeks before dying out again.
John Waller uses his first three chapters setting the scene. The people of Strasbourg and its surrounding area had suffered much in the preceding years. A series of bad harvests, periods of drought followed by torrential rain, culminating in the "bad year" of 1517 with grain prices soaring and famine striking with terrible force, killing thousands from malnutrition and related maladies.
The populace was exploited by a rapacious church, with monasteries exploiting the high grain prices by selling their grain stores (obtained from taxes and tithes) outside the area, the starving peasants observing convoys of grain leaving their towns and villages to achieve higher prices in wealthier areas. The population was threatened by the "infidel Turk", the arrival of syphilis in their communities and a terrible epidemic of a disease named "the English Sweat".
It was in this situation that on 14 July 1518, Frau Troffea stepped out of her house "swaying and jumping awkwardly from foot to foot". The poor woman danced compulsively throughout the day, until at night she collapsed into sleep, only to resume her dance early the next morning. She danced like this for six days, until being sent away to a chapel dedicated to St Vitus, some thirty miles away.
Within no time many more citizens were overcome with the irresistible desire to dance. The burghers of the city consulted the physicians guild, who recommended that the dancers should be left to continue their dance, in the belief that the heavy perspiration resulting from the dance would eventually expel the residues of bad blood which had built up in their veins. The outdoor grain market was commandeered to accommodate the dancers and the burghers even hired professional musicians to encourage the dancers and so hasten the time when they would be thoroughly danced out.
John Waller has covered every angle of this strange and terrible story, investigating the possible physical and mental causes of this dancing plague. He recognises that it occurred within a particular historical and social context and also explores similar outbreaks which have occurred in different locations and times. He considers the similarities between the Strasbourg events and other movements such as modern day "raves", or Pentecostal worship services. Outbreaks of dancing have occurred regularly in Christian charismatic worship services, but rarely lasting more than a few minutes rather than the several weeks in 16th century Strasbourg.
The author has gone to considerable lengths in this book to get inside the mediaeval mindset and as I read it I was reminded how very different the beliefs and culture of that age were from our own. I found this to be an interesting and enjoyable read which is not merely of historical interest but also helps to explain some modern-day psychological phenomena.
John Waller uses his first three chapters setting the scene. The people of Strasbourg and its surrounding area had suffered much in the preceding years. A series of bad harvests, periods of drought followed by torrential rain, culminating in the "bad year" of 1517 with grain prices soaring and famine striking with terrible force, killing thousands from malnutrition and related maladies.
The populace was exploited by a rapacious church, with monasteries exploiting the high grain prices by selling their grain stores (obtained from taxes and tithes) outside the area, the starving peasants observing convoys of grain leaving their towns and villages to achieve higher prices in wealthier areas. The population was threatened by the "infidel Turk", the arrival of syphilis in their communities and a terrible epidemic of a disease named "the English Sweat".
It was in this situation that on 14 July 1518, Frau Troffea stepped out of her house "swaying and jumping awkwardly from foot to foot". The poor woman danced compulsively throughout the day, until at night she collapsed into sleep, only to resume her dance early the next morning. She danced like this for six days, until being sent away to a chapel dedicated to St Vitus, some thirty miles away.
Within no time many more citizens were overcome with the irresistible desire to dance. The burghers of the city consulted the physicians guild, who recommended that the dancers should be left to continue their dance, in the belief that the heavy perspiration resulting from the dance would eventually expel the residues of bad blood which had built up in their veins. The outdoor grain market was commandeered to accommodate the dancers and the burghers even hired professional musicians to encourage the dancers and so hasten the time when they would be thoroughly danced out.
John Waller has covered every angle of this strange and terrible story, investigating the possible physical and mental causes of this dancing plague. He recognises that it occurred within a particular historical and social context and also explores similar outbreaks which have occurred in different locations and times. He considers the similarities between the Strasbourg events and other movements such as modern day "raves", or Pentecostal worship services. Outbreaks of dancing have occurred regularly in Christian charismatic worship services, but rarely lasting more than a few minutes rather than the several weeks in 16th century Strasbourg.
The author has gone to considerable lengths in this book to get inside the mediaeval mindset and as I read it I was reminded how very different the beliefs and culture of that age were from our own. I found this to be an interesting and enjoyable read which is not merely of historical interest but also helps to explain some modern-day psychological phenomena.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Fantastic book. It got a good review in New Scientist and not without reason. Covers the subject in depth and makes very interesting reading. The later part of the book deals with how Post Traumatic Stress can manifest itself in relation to the plague. Makes you glad to be alive today!
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This was a very interesting book because it gave a perspicuous explanation for the so called 'dancing plague' of, not just 1518, but other similar events that occurred in the middle ages. It also makes you think how little we really know about the brain and the mind and how we could or would subconsciously react to very stressful situations. Well worth a read!
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