Download PDF | Ole J. Benedictow - What Disease was Plague_ On the Controversy over the Microbiological Identity of Plague Epidemics of the Past , Brill 2010.
763 Pages
PREFACE
This monograph is not a work of intellectual love and joy, but of scholarly duty. I consider it a duty to examine and repudiate some alternative theories of the microbiological and epidemiological nature of historical plague epidemics. I do so not only because I consider that they are methodologically and factually grossly fl awed, but also because they misrepresent the life work of a large number of fi ne and dedicated medical and historical scholars, many of whom cannot rise from their graves to defend themselves. Against this backdrop, it cannot come as a surprise that I believe that this monograph will provide substantial material for discussion of the ethics of scholarly investigation.
I also believe that parts will be useful for the teaching of the basic tenets of the methodology of social science and history. Th us, only very reluctantly have I embarked on writing this monograph, and only because I consider it absolutely necessary and an ethical duty. In the great medieval Norwegian visionary poem the Dream Lay the narrator Olav Åsteson, aft er having visited hell and a part of paradise in his great dream, warns his audience that “those who follow in my footsteps will not laugh from joy in their hearts.” Long ago, in the autumn term of 1967, I studied late medieval Russian history at the University of Moscow aft er having received a scholarship from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Aff airs.
Th e opportunity of meeting Russian scholars and students made a lasting impression on me, not least their icy black humour conveyed in anecdotes that refl ected the life of scholars who had endured the not-so-distant years of Stalinist terror. T.D. Lysenko, the fraudulent biologist of Stalinist theory, was not dismissed from his post until 1965. During my work on this monograph, one of these anecdotes repeatedly came to mind: Professor Tarakanov [i.e., “Cockroachson”] carried out a research project on cockroaches.
He took a cockroach from his box of healthy and agile specimens, tore off a pair of legs, put it down on the table and screamed at it at the top of his voice: “Run! Run!” And the cockroach crawled across the table as best it could. When it reached the end of the table, the researcher grabbed it, tore off another pair of legs, put it down and screamed at it again: “Run! Run!” And the desperate cockroach actually managed to move across the table.
However, at the end of the table the researcher grabbed it again, tore off its last pair of legs, put it down on the table and screamed: “Run! Run!” But this time the cockroach did not move. Th e researcher noted his conclusion in the project’s notebook: “With this experiment, I have proved that cockroaches are animals with their hearing organs on their legs.” However, in upbeat moments I entertain the hope that the medical and historical plague research brought together in this monograph will make it more diffi cult to launch misguided alternative theories in the future. I also hope that any new alternative theories will take into account the actual tenets of earlier scholars and the latest data of plague research. OJB
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