Korry Wagstaff History Since 1500 Lolene Blake April 3, 2014 D.A.E.

-Black Death The document is titled The Black Death and is covering the three forms of the Black Death. It also discusses the outbreak and spread of this epidemic and explains a little about each form and how it affected the people. The name of the writer isnt present; however, it would appear to be a more recent writer. The document has images included in it that are referenced from other credible websites such as www.boisestate.edu and therefore, the credibility of this document is there. Where this document was written is unclear. The document addresses the three forms (Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemic) of the Black plague, how they progressed from country to country, and the impact it had on societies at this time. There is a focus on the types of plague and an explanation as to how it spread. This is to emphasize the impact and potential such a disease can have on a society that does not have the knowledge or ability to combat it. Presentation of the Plague- This section of the document is very short, but informs the reader of the three forms the plague was presented in. It lists the three (Bubonic, Pneumonic, and Septicemic) and how they affected the human body. This included the life expectancy. This section ends with a statement, Having no defense and no understanding of the cause, describing how the Black Death was unknown and why it was so successful at devastating the

populations. This is good knowledge and helps set a time period in the readers mind. We can see that a plague that attacks in three forms and is unknown on how or what spreads it can wreak havoc on a population. Progress of the Pandemic- This section is much larger than the first and goes a little more in depth on how the Black Death started as well as how it progressed from city to city. With the use of maps, the writer is able to portray the progression and give you an idea of how it followed the trade routes. The writer also include the years in which it was found in areas of the world to give the reader a time line of the progression and show how long the Black Death affected the world. The document mentions how the Black Death followed the caravan routes and as it spread it created a circuit or in other terms it would continue to spread from city to city and back to cities it had earlier affected do solely to trade. The progress of the plague very neatly describes the geography of medieval trade. This statement ends this section and opens the mind of the reader to the other things we can see by studying the past. We are able to see the effect the plague had on the people as well as how the trade of the time period contributed to the spread and devastation that was caused by it. Three forms of the Plague- This part of the document gives the reader some knowledge on the Black Death and how it spread. It explains how the bubonic and septicemic forms were only transmitted through contact and that the pneumonic form was airborne. It explains how the bubonic version was the most common form and the mortality rate that it had. This section lists the three forms from most common to least common, and gives the reader some background knowledge on each form. This is good if you are writing a research paper because you need to know what the three forms are and how they were spread as well as how effective they all were in devastating the society. The writer mentions the amount dead per day to give the reader a

dramatic understanding of the plagues effect. It gives you a better understanding and ends with a dramatic image of devastation. The image includes many dead and people that would appear to be skeletons cleaning up. The use of imagery in this document is to help establish the readers understanding of the events and the progression of the Black Death. Though the information can be presented without imagery, if makes it easier for some readers to understand the concept and visualize the effect with t the use of a visual aid. This added to the documents overall effectiveness with its readers and made it a document that many would be able to benefit from. The images used were pulled from other credible sources and accompanied by links to these sources, which would further help the reader research and understand the impact and reasons behind the Black Death. Overall, this document is very informative and could be used in your research to present you with an outline and some background knowledge of the plague. You would definitely need to use more than just this document due to the short nature of it and the fact that it briefly covers the spread as more of an outline then an in-depth explanation of it. This document seemed to be focused on the forms of the Black Death and how they were contracted and spread. This is good knowledge to have when researching the topic. The writer did an excellent job and informed the reader of the forms and how they were so successful at the time period in which the Black Death was most present. The information given is accurate and pulled from many other credible sources. The fact that there isnt a name of the author given can make a document questionable, because we dont know the writers credibility, but, with the sources the writer included and links to the given pages, we can assess the validity of the statements and come to the conclusion that this specific source is credible. This document is a good source for information on the Black Death and would benefit someone writing a research paper discussing this topic.