In 1722, Daniel Defoe published A Journal of the Plague Year, recounting the Great Plague of 1665 in London. This fictionalized but fact-based narration of the bubonic plague’s last outbreak in England is strangely relevant today, despite advances in the understanding of disease in the three centuries since it was published.
Londoners in those times experienced some of the same challenges that today’s coronavirus pandemic has created for the modern world. Defoe recorded the difficulty that public authorities had in keeping even sick and symptomatic people from sneaking out of their homes and spreading disease. There were obviously enormous disruptions to the economy, as even the simple act of bringing produce from farm to the city brought with it a risk of infection.
