John Aberth's The Black Death - Book Report/Review Example

The book though does not bring in new ideas or tend to refute any; it brings the different ideas from different points of view for comparative study. The purpose of the book is made clear right from the first page to the last page though handling different facets of the topic plague. The book does not have a thesis but offers an array of different perceptions collected and presented in a single literature. Organization of the Materials As stared in the above paragraph, the author has detailed the chronology of the book by organizing it sequentially on the different accounts from the different perspectives for providing the readers with a wider spectrum of opinions and perception on the same issues depending on the region-the plague.

The literature in this text is organized in a way that it appreciates the different perception and opinion of the different documents. A chronology of the Black Death and some questions to be considered are also part of the literature. In reference to the source of information, the book is not about a specific research, it is about the use of primary sources (documents) about the same topic of plague to expose the relationship of the various documents in how they approach a single topic and how it was conceived in the different parts of the world.

Scope of the Research Even thought the author is repeating something that is already documented, it should be noted that a comparative approach taken in this case would help the student with snapshot information of the plague existence in the 14th century and how the different literatures considered it then. The author has also used the headnotes in providing additional information about the different sources considered in this book. This contains several documents from different countries including the Islamic and the Byzantine sources.

Authors Qualification The author of this literature is an academic icon in the areas related to the topic discussed in this book. John Aberth is an associate academic dean at the Castleton State College where he has distinguished himself as a history teacher. He has also contributed by publishing several other books amongst them includes;, A Knight at the Movie: Medieval History on Film published in 2003, From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, And Death published in 2000, and Churchmen in the Age of Edward III: the Case of Bishop Thomas de Lisle published in 1996 (Aberth, 1).

In the book, the author do not present any prejudice, he has only made the effort to synchronize the information from the different documents a cross the world for the purpose of appreciating the diversity of the information surrounding the history and considerations made about the plague in the 14th century. Fulfillment of the Purpose The author of this book, The Black Death has overwhelmingly succeeded in the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book was to look into the different historical issues relating to plague as well as the devastation of the plague then.

In this regard, the author has considered 50 documents sources from different parts of the world and cultures to achieve the purpose. The book provides a meaningful purpose of evaluating different sources and making then contributes towards