-Daily Life During the Black Death provides a comprehensive introduction to many of the subjects surrounding the study of premodern epidemics. In his opening introduction Joseph Byrne offers a concise outline of the issues confronting historians of the plague and one of the clearest summations of the debate among scholars about whether the Black Death was in fact bubonic plague or some other disease, such as anthrax. —Sixteenth Century Journal

-Reading about aspects of life in medieval Europe-religious, economic, and political structures as well as food, clothing, and crafts-puts a human face on the immense suffering caused by the flesh-destroying pestilence known as the plague, or Black Death. This volume expertly describes people of the Middle Ages under enormous strain to maintain some semblance of ordinary life in the face of terrible fear and adversity. Background notes and excerpts from primary-source documents are included. —Curriculum Connections School Library Journal

-Readers who come to Byrne's book with a vague notion of some bad sickness spreading across Europe during the Middle Ages will put it down with a full awareness of the horror of the flesh-destroying pestilence of the Plague, or King Death....Both books expertly portray the lives of peoples under enormous strain to maintain a semblance of the normalcy implied by the term daily life. Each volume comes with a full complement of strong scholarship, including extensive notes, bibliographies, chronologies, illustrations, and excerpts from original sources. The prose and general composition suggest a laudable and consistently high level of editing. These volumes are both recommended for teens with strong reading skills and a background in history. (Reviewed with Daily Life of Native Americans from Post-Columbian through Nineteenth-Century America) —School Library Journal