From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague, and Death in the Later Middle Ages
The material is interesting and Aberth is a compelling storyteller...Readers may appreciate it for its wide scope, unadorned style, and colorful anecdotes... -- Frans van Liere, Calvin College, forThe HistorianThorough, balanced, and courteous in tone, this survey of the social, political, and moral landscape of the late Middle Ages inspires confidence even when it invites disagreement.  Aberth is especially good on the literature of the period.  His wide-ranging and well-illustrated chapter on death in particular is offers a splendidly comprehensive overview of a subject which has lately attracted a great deal of first-rate research and writing.--Eamon Duffy, The New York Review of Books.The author's own enthusiasm for plague and associate calamities in late medieval England and France should prove highly contagious. -- Barrie Dobson, Honorary Professor of History, University of YorkAberths' informative and orignally shaped volume is well tailored to bring out the dynamic of man's struggle with his environment in the last two medieval centuries. -- Maurice Keen, Fellow, Balliol College, OxfordWell written and lively, the book will give general and undergraduate students of British history plenty to think about. --Choice, October 2001A wonderfully written book with numerous black and white images. --Biblical Worldview, August 2001