num_pages: 304
description: 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.
language: English
title: From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages
publisher: Routledge