John Aberth

A fascinating account of the phenomenon known as the Black Death, this volume offers a wealth of documentary material focused on the initial outbreak of the plague that ravaged the world in the fourteenth century. A comprehensive introduction that provides important background on the origins and spread of the plague is followed by nearly 50 documents organized into topical sections that focus on the origin and spread of the illness; the responses of medical practitioners; the societal and economic impact; religious responses; the flagellant movement and attacks on Jews provoked by the plague; and the artistic response. Each chapter has an introduction that summarizes the issues explored in the documents; headnotes to the documents provide additional background material. The book contains documents from many countries — including Muslim and Byzantine sources — to give students a variety of perspectives on this devastating illness and its consequences. The volume also includes illustrations, a chronology of the Black Death, questions to consider, a selected bibliography, and an index.

A Brief History with Documents

The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350

It was a firm belief in the ways of providence and the first stirrings of greater political freedom, says Aberth (history, U. of Nebraska), that allowed European communities to endure the full share and more of misery that befell them during the later Middle Ages. He takes his themes from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to describe responses to the Great Famine and the Black Death that swept away nearly half of the continent's population, while English and French leaders occupied themselves with the Hundred Years War. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages

From the Brink of the Apocalypse

The book defines plague broadly to encompass infectious diseases from the Black Death to AIDS.

Plagues in World History

Imagining the Middle Ages is an unprecedented examination of the historical content of films depicting the medieval period from the 11th to the 15th centuries. Historians increasingly feel the need to weigh in on popular depictions of the past, since so much of the public's knowledge of history comes from popular mediums. Aberth dissects how each film interpreted the period, offering estimations of the historical accuracy of the works and demonstrating how they project their own contemporary era's obsessions and fears onto the past.

Medieval History on Film

A Knight at the Movies

This new edition continues to provide a fascinating account of the plague that ravaged the world in the fourteenth century. An updated introduction provides important background information and addresses the "plague denial" controversy. A new section of documents on environmental explanations for and responses to the plague joins sections on the origin and spread of the illness; the responses of medical practitioners; the societal and economic impact; religious responses; the flagellant movement and attacks on Jews provoked by the plague; and the artistic response.--

The Black Death, The Great Mortality of 1348-1350

The Middle Ages was a critical and formative time for Western approaches to our natural surroundings.ãeeAn Environmental History of the Middle Ages is a unique and unprecedented cultural survey of attitudes towards the environment during this period. Humankindâe(tm)s relationship with the environment shifted gradually over time from a predominantly adversarial approach to something more overtly collaborative, until a series of ecological crises in the late Middle Ages. With the advent of shattering events such as the Great Famine and the Black Death, considered efflorescences of the climate downturn known as the Little Ice Age that is comparable to our present global warming predicament, medieval people began to think of and relate to their natural environment in new and more nuanced ways. They now were made to be acutely aware of the consequences of human impacts upon the environment, anticipating the cyclical, "new ecology" approach of the modern world. Exploring the entire medieval period from 500 to 1500, and ranging across the whole of Europe, from England and Spain to the Baltic and Eastern Europe, John Aberth focuses his study on three key areas: the natural elements of air, water, and earth; the forest; and wild and domestic animals. Through this multi-faceted lens, An Environmental History of the Middle Ages sheds fascinating new light on the medieval environmental mindset. It will be essential reading for students, scholars and all those interested in the Middle Ages

The Crucible of Nature

An Environmental History of the Middle Ages

"A higher education history book on the Black Death, giving not just a narrative account but also a thorough examination of the latest forensic, historical, and DNA evidence to date"--

A New History of the Great Mortality in Europe, 1347-1500

The Black Death

This engrossing book provides a comprehensive history of the medical response to the Black Death. John Aberth has translated plague treatises that illustrate the human dimensions of the horrific scourge, including doctors’ personal anecdotes as they desperately struggled to understand a deadly new disease.

Medieval Europe's Medical Response to Plague

Doctoring the Black Death

Plagues in World History provides a concise, comparative world history of catastrophic infectious diseases, including plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. John Aberth considers not only their varied impact but also the many ways in which people have been able to influence diseases simply through their cultural attitudes. Our ability to alter disease, even without modern medical treatments, is even more crucial lesson now that AIDS, swine flu, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, and other seemingly incurable illnesses have raged worldwide. The author's comparative analysis of how different societies have responded in the past to disease illuminates what cultural approaches have been and may continue to be most effective in combating the plagues of today.

Praise for the first edition: "Aberth wears his very considerable and up-to-date scholarship lightly and his study of a series of complex and somber calamites is made remarkably vivid." -- Barrie Dobson, Honorary Professor of History, University of York The later Middle Ages was a period of unparalleled chaos and misery -in the form of war, famine, plague, and death. At times it must have seemed like the end of the world was truly at hand. And yet, as John Aberth reveals in this lively work, late medieval Europeans' cultural assumptions uniquely equipped them to face up postively to the huge problems that they faced. Relying on rich literary, historical and material sources, the book brings this period and its beliefs and attitudes vividly to life. Taking his themes from the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, John Aberth describes how the lives of ordinary people were transformed by a series of crises, including the Great Famine, the Black Death and the Hundred Years War. Yet he also shows how prayers, chronicles, poetry, and especially commemorative art reveal an optimistic people, whose belief in the apocalypse somehow gave them the ability to transcend the woes they faced on this earth. This second edition is brought fully up to date with recent scholarship, and the scope of the book is broadened to include many more examples from mainland Europe. The new edition features fully revised sections on famine, war, and plague, as well as a new epitaph. The book draws some bold new conclusions and raises important questions, which will be fascinating reading for all students and general readers with an interest in medieval history.

Confronting Famine, War, Plague and Death in the Later Middle Ages

Contesting the Middle Ages is a thorough exploration of recent arguments surrounding nine hotly debated topics: the decline and fall of Rome, the Viking invasions, the Crusades, the persecution of minorities, sexuality in the Middle Ages, women within medieval society, intellectual and environmental history, the Black Death, and, lastly, the waning of the Middle Ages. The historiography of the Middle Ages, a term in itself controversial amongst medieval historians, has been continuously debated and rewritten for centuries. In each chapter, John Aberth sets out key historiographical debates in an engaging and informative way, encouraging students to consider the process of writing about history and prompting them to ask questions even of already thoroughly debated subjects, such as why the Roman Empire fell, or what significance the Black Death had both in the late Middle Ages and beyond. Sparking discussion and inspiring examination of the past and its ongoing significance in modern life, Contesting the Middle Ages is essential reading for students of medieval history and historiography.

John Aberth

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