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Diary of Samuel Pepys shows how life under the bubonic plague mirrored today's pandemic

  • Written by Ute Lotz-Heumann, Heiko A. Oberman Professor of Late Medieval and Reformation History, University of Arizona
There were eerie similarities between Pepys' time and our own.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In early April, writer Jen Miller urged New York Times readers to start a coronavirus diary.

“Who knows,” she wrote, “maybe one day your diary will provide a valuable window into this period.”

During a different pandemic, one...

Read more: Diary of Samuel Pepys shows how life under the bubonic plague mirrored today's pandemic

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