Encyclopedia of the Black Death (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781598842531)

This encyclopedia provides 300 interdisciplinary, cross-referenced entries that document the effect of the plague on Western society across the four centuries of the second plague pandemic, balancing medical history and technical matters with historical, cultural, social, and political factors.

Encyclopedia of the Black Death is the first A-Z encyclopedia to cover the second plague pandemic, balancing medical history and technical matters with historical, cultural, social, and political factors and effects in Europe and the Islamic world from 1347-1770. It also bookends the period with entries on Biblical plagues and the Plague of Justinian, as well as modern-era material regarding related topics, such as the work of Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur, the Third Plague Pandemic of the mid-1800s, and plague in the United States.

Unlike previous encyclopedic works about this subject that deal broadly with infectious disease and its social or historical contexts, including the author's own, this interdisciplinary work synthesizes much of the research on the plague and related medical history published in the last decade in accessible, compellingly written entries. Controversial subject areas such as whether "plague" was bubonic plague and the geographic source of plague are treated in a balanced and unbiased manner.

Author: Joseph P. Byrne
ISBN-10: 1598842536
ISBN-13: 9781598842531
Publisher: ABC-CLIO
Language: English
Published: 01/16/2012
Pages: 452
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.40lbs
Size: 9.90h x 7.00w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 04/15/2012 pg. 100
Booklist 05/01/2012 pg. 86
Choice 07/01/2012
Reference and Research Bk News 04/01/2012 pg. 228