El Lissitzky Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

El Lissitzky - Essay Example He designed several exhibition display and propaganda for the Soviet Union and experimented with several techniques and styles that set him apart from other artist, in creativity, and later paved a niche for him through the 20th century (Lissitzky-Kuppers, 1980; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum and El Lissitzy, 1990). Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, a Jew, started as an artist early in life copying and illustrating Yiddish children's books. His efforts were basically aimed a promoting the Jewish culture in Russia, in line with the several changes taking place after the country's anti-Semitic laws were repealed. Starting at the age of 15, he began teaching, a duty that he never strayed far away from, for the most part of his life (Friedberg, 1987). He taught in a variety of positions, schools, and artistic mediums, spreading and exchanging ideas at a rapid pace. The ability to imbibe people's ideas and at the time same influencing them, was his unique trait. This trait was exhibited when he met and worked with Malevich in heading the suprematist art group UNOVIS, when he developed a variant suprematist series of his own, Proun, and further still in 1921, when he took up a job as the Russian cultural ambassador in Weimar Germany, working with and influencing important figures of the Bauhaus and De Stijl movements during his stay (Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum and El Lissitzy, 1990). Also, in his later days, he significantly influenced and brought several innovations to the fields of typography, exhibition design, photomontage, and book design. He produced several internationally recognised works. This continued until his deathbed, where in 1941 he produced one of his last known works - a Soviet propaganda poster rallying the people to construct more tanks for the fight against Nazi Germany (Lissitzky-Kuppers, 1980). However, the entire career and works of El Lissitzky was inspired by his belief that art should serve the needs of the society and that the artist should be an agent of change. From this perspective, it can be argued that his innovations in the world of art were driven by his resolve to serve societal needs, or affect the lots of the people, giving his devotion to the communist movement (Lissitzky-Kuppers, 1980; Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum and El Lissitzy, 1990). This essay therefore, intends to examine the life and work of El Lissitzky with a view to analysing the impacts and effects that the ethical and ideological views prevalent during his days, especially during the Russian Revolution had on his approach to art and design. To achieve this purpose, this essay will be structured thus: the first section of this essay shall briefly describe the history of El Lissitzky and the rise of the Proletarian Culture to provide a background understanding of his early days and perhaps his motivation. The second section will describe the several popular works of this artist and attempt to critically examine the influence of the prevalent soviet ideological of the time, on such work of art. Also, by looking at how his approach to art and design metamorphosed from the early days of illustrating Yiddish books to his later days in typography, on would gain an insight into how prevalent ethics and ideological perspectives influenced his approach to, and

Cengage Learning Essay Example for Free

Cengage Learning Essay After taking the survey regarding the climate of my organization, I gained interesting insight into my company’s position in the work/life area. The survey provided by the Work and Family Connection asked twenty questions, in which I enjoyed answering. 1. My manager/supervisor treats my work/life needs with sensitivity. Agree 2. It is usually easy for me to manage the demands of both work and home life. Agree 3. My career path at this company is limited because of the pressure of home life demands. Disagree 4. My job at this company keeps me from maintaining the quality of life I want. Disagree 5. My manager/supervisor is supportive when home life issues interfere with work. Disagree 6. My manager/supervisor focuses on results, rather than the time I am at my desk. Disagree 7. My manager/supervisor has a good understanding of flexible work hour practices. Agree 8. If I requested a flexible work arrangement, my manager/supervisor would support me. Agree 9. My manager/supervisor is often inflexible or insensitive about my personal needs. Disagree 10. I believe my manager treats me with respect. Agree 11. My manager allows me informal flexibility as long as I get the job done. Agree 12. My manager tends to treat us like children. Disagree 13. My manager seldom gives me praise or recognition for the work I do. Disagree 14. My manager seems to care about me as a person. Agree 15. I would recommend this company to others. Agree 16. The work I do is not all that important to this company’s success. Disagree 17. If I could find another job with better pay, I would leave this organization. Disagree 18. If I could find another job where I would be treated with respect, I would take it. Disagree 19. If I could find another job where I could have more flexibility, I would take it. Agree 20. I am totally committed to this company. Agree Since I scored seventeen, I am in the category that states that my organization is supportive and more flexible than most; however, there is room for me to grow (Snell Bohlander, 2013). This scoring seems highly accurate to me. I do feel as though I have a very supportive and flexible place of employment; however, I feel that there is room for improvement. References Snell, S. , Bohlander, G. (2013). Managing human resources. Mason, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Community Safety Initiatives | Evaluation

Community Safety Initiatives | Evaluation INTRODUCTION Purpose of this paper is to discuss the main problems confronting those who must evaluate community safety initiatives. In order to do this, the paper first provides an overview of the problem. This is followed by an analysis of support and initiative by governments, technical difficulties, access to data, political pressure, and utilisation. COMMUNITY SAFETY EVALUATION The initial challenge facing every community safety initiative is to meet crime reduction targets whilst also implementing preventative measures to ensure long-term reductions in crime and disorder. Arguably, high quality evaluation can play a role in this as it can help better understand what works and how it works (Morton 2006). According to AG (2007), evaluation is concerned with making value-based judgments about a program. Mallock and Braithwaite (2005:4) define evaluation as â€Å"the systematic examination of a policy, program or project aimed at assessing its merit, value, worth, relevance or contribution†. Any evidence of the benefits and impact of initiatives will help to influence local partners in commissioning decisions. However, according to Morton (2006), some evaluators have been more able to undertake evaluations than others. As Read and Tilley (2000) claim, evaluation stage continues to be a major weakness of a community safety program. Proper evaluations of community safety initiatives are rare (Community Safety Centre 2000). According to Rhodes (2007), a range of policies and programs has been established with the aim of achieving greater community participation and involvement leading to increased community capacity. However there has been little evaluation of this approach or the specific programs. Read and Tilley (2000) also claim that there is relatively little systematic evaluation and a shortage of good evaluations. Moreover, what is available is generally weak. According to AG (2007), the reasons for the lack of evaluation of community safety programs have not been studied extensively, but social, political and financial considerations are likely to have a strong influence. Evaluation studies consume resources, and therefore are competing for the limited resources available and must be justified by the value of the information which they provide. There are also several other relevant factors including the limited knowledge and experience of evaluation theory and practice of many program managers and organisers. In addition, evaluation evidence is often seen as bad news since program objectives tend to be over-optimistic and hence are rarely fully met; a situation that evaluation might expose. LACK OF SUPPORT AND INITIATIVE According to Community Safety Centre (2000), little time and resources are available for conducting evaluation. When evaluation does occur, the size does matter. It can depend on how large the partnership is as to the resources that they have available for evaluation (Cherney and Sutton 2004). Often in small partnerships no money is put aside for evaluation. Since majority of serious evaluations are going to be expensive, this can particularly be a problem for small projects where a good evaluation may take up a relatively large proportion of the project budget. Thus, very often people will argue that this is an unnecessary cost. Furthermore, practitioners very often feel that they can themselves quiet easily tell whether or not something has been a success. Community Safety Centre (2000) concludes that recommendations that something works, by people who were involved in implementing the initiative, are often based on relatively weak evaluation evidence commonly relying on more gener al impressions that are usually not objective enough. In Australia, for example, neither central nor regional government has so far encouraged evaluators to undertake their own evaluation (Cherney and Sutton 2004). Community Safety Centre (2000) and Morton (2006) also claim that there is a lack of commitment from central government and local agencies, arguing that the problem lies in attracting and maintaining involvement of people and agencies that really are not interested in crime prevention or community safety. According to Morton (2006), evaluators have only been required to produce quarterly reports with milestones for the future and not to undertake a real reflection on a project, including writing a review on the project and analysing available data. All evaluators have to do is monitor whether money is being spent on outputs. Read and Tilley (2000) argue that there is little attention paid to how initiatives may have had their effects. There is not enough investment or requirement for evaluation. According to Varone, Jacob and De Winter (2005), policy evaluation is an underdeveloped tool of Belgian public governance. They claim that it is partitocracy, weakness of Parliament vis-à  -vis the government, and the federalisation process that is characteristic of the recent institutional evolution of the country, that jeopardise the development of a mature evaluation culture. TECHNICAL DIFFUCULTIES Evaluators might find barriers at each of the evaluation steps, including problem formulation, design of instruments, research deign, data collection, data analysis, findings and conclusions and utilisation (Hagan 2000). In respect to problem formulation, evaluation researchers are often in a hurry to get on with the task without thoroughly grounding the evaluation in the major theoretical issues in the field. Glaser and Zeigler (1974) claim that much of what is regarded as in-house evaluations has been co opted and is little more than head counting or the production of tables for annual reports. Further problem is the absence of standardised definitions. The confusion over definitions has not only impeded communication among researchers and, more importantly, between researchers and practitioners, but also has hindered comparisons and replications of research studies. Furthermore, although evaluators would prefer control over treatment and a classic experimental design, with random assignment of cases to experimental and control groups, this seldom happens. In many instances it is very difficult to find organisations that would be willing to undergo experimentation, particularly if it involves the denial of certain treatments (control group) to some clients. The program planners and staff may resists randomisation as means of allocations treatments, arguing for assignment based on need or merit. The design may not be correctly carried out, resulting in nonequivalent experimental and control groups. The design may break down as some people refuse to participate or drop out of different treatment groups (experimental mortality). Some feel that randomised designs create focused inequality because some groups receive treatment others desire and thus can cause reactions that could be confused with treatments. Much of the bemoaning concerning the inadequacy of research design in evaluation methodology has arisen because of an over-commitment to experimental designs, and a deficient appreciation of the utility of post hoc controls by means of multivariety statistical techniques. It may be that more rapid progress can be made in the evolution of preventive programs if research designs are based on statistical rather than experimental model. One major difficulty in evaluation research is in procuring adequate control groups. In respect to data collection, one principal shortcoming of much evaluation research has been its over reliance on questionnaires as the primary means of data gathering. Program supporters will jump on methodological or procedural problems in any evaluation that comes to a negative conclusion. Hagan (2000) also lists other obstacles to evaluation, including unsound and poorly done data analysis, unethical evaluations, naive and unprepared evaluation staff, and poor relationships between evaluation and program staff. Community Safety Centre (2000) argues that, unlike experimental researchers, evaluators often have difficulty comparing their experimental groups with a control group. Although evaluators might attempt to find a similar group to compare with, it is usually impossible to apply the ideal experimental rigor of randomly allocating individuals to an experimental condition and a control condition. According to AG (2007), those responsible for commissioning or conducting evaluation studies also need to take account of the local social, cultural and political context if the evaluations are to produce evidence that is not only useful, but used. According to Morton (2006), some evaluators have stressed their incompetence, claming that they do not know how to undertake evaluation. Schuller (2004) has referred to the lack of accuracy in their predictions, partly due to a lack of post-auditing information. She further argues that evaluators apply a narrow scope that stresses well-established knowledge of local impacts, whilst underplaying wider geographical, systematic, or time factors. Evaluation research can be a complex and difficult task (Community Safety Centre 2000). Evaluators are often described by a lack of control over, and even knowledge of, wide range of factors which may or may not impact on the performance indicators. While evaluating a single crime prevention initiative may be difficult enough, evaluating a full community safety project may be many times more complicated. The intervention package often impacts beyond the target area and this impact needs to be anticipated. As an additional complication, evaluation research can itself have an impact on the outcome of an initiative. A secondary role of the audit process is to raise awareness and build support for the initiative in the affected community. ACCESS TO DATA A commonly reported problem with evaluation has been access to relevant data (Morton 2006). Morton (2006) claims that it is often hard to get good baseline data against which to evaluate a project, mainly because procedures and resources for appropriate multi-agency data collection and mapping are not in place. Often the relevant data is not recorded or collated across services and analysed together to give a complete picture of the problem. Furthermore, partnerships often lack appropriate analytical skills to use quantitative data (Morton 2006). According to Hagan (2000), if proper data for evaluation are absent and clear outcomes or criteria of organisational success are absent, then a proper evaluation cannot be undertaken. The success of the entire evaluation process hinges on the motivation of the administrator and organisation in calling for an evaluation in the first place. It should be possible to locate specific organisational objectives that are measurable. The key assumptions of the program must be stated in a form which can be tested objectively. However, this often does not happen in practice. POLITICAL PRESSURE Political pressure can present another problem for evaluators. Administrators often want to spend all the funding available on implementation as opposed to evaluation (Morton 2006). Thus, being aware of the political context of a program is a precondition for useable evaluation research (AG 2007). Evaluation research requires the active support and cooperation of the agency or program to be evaluated (Hagan 2000). However, the program administrator’s desire to reaffirm his or her position with favorable program evaluations may conflict with the evaluator’s desire to acquire an objective appraisal of a program’s impact. The end result may be either a research design with low scientific credibility and tainted results, or a credible study that never receives a public hearing because the administrator does not like the results. According to Read and Tilley (2000), few evaluations are independent and evidence is used selectively. There is undue satisfaction with redu ction as an indicator that the initiative was effective without attention to alternative explanations, or to possible side-effects. They further argue that 84% of evaluations they studied were conducted by the initiative coordinator or staff, and only 9% were by an independent external evaluator. Thus, it is challenging for partnerships to persuade for funding to be put aside for evaluation. Evaluator’s job is also affected by balancing the need to be strategic and pressure to produce â€Å"runs on the board† by local authorities and central agencies, as well as the greater value placed on â€Å"projects† compared to â€Å"planning† within local authorities (Cherney and Sutton 2004). According to Hagan (2000), even the best laid evaluation plans can â€Å"bite the dust† in the â€Å"high noon† of political reality. In discussing the politicisation of evaluation research, Hagan (2000) points out the incasing political nature of evaluations as they are increasingly used to decide the future of programs. According to him, part of the administrator’s concern about evaluation research comes from the dilemma that research creates for him. The evaluation process casts him in contradictory roles. On the one hand, he is the key person in the agency, and the success of its various operations, including evaluation, depends on his knowledge and involvement. On the other hand, evaluation carries the potentiality of discrediting an administratively sponsored program or of undermining a position the administrator has taken. MURPHY’S LAW Hagan (2000) applies Murphy’s Law to evaluation research, clearly indicated barriers that evaluator faces. In relation to evaluation design: the resources needed to complete the evaluation will exceed the original projection by a factor of two. after an evaluation has been completed and is believed to control for all relevant variables, others will be discovered and rival hypothesis will multiply geometrically the necessity of making a major decision change increases as the evaluation project nears completion. In relation to evaluation management: the probability of a breakdown in cooperation between the evaluation project and an operational agency is directly proportional to the trouble it can cause. if staying on schedule is dependent on a number of activities which may be completed before or after an allotted time interval, the total time needed will accumulate in the direction of becoming further and further behind schedule. In relation to data collection: the availability of data element is inversely proportional to the need for that element historical baseline data will be recorded in units or by criteria other than present or future records none of the available self-report formats will work as well as you expect In relation to data analysis and interpretation: in a mathematical calculation, any error that can creep in, will. It will accumulate in the direction that will do the most damage to the results of the calculation. the figure that is most obviously correct will be the source of error if an analysis matrix requires â€Å"n† data elements to make the analysis easy and logical, there will always be â€Å"n-1† available. When tabulating data, the line totals and the column totals should up to the grand total; they won’t In relation to presentation of evaluation findings: the more extensive and thorough the evaluation the less likely the findings will be used by decision makers. UTILISATION Evaluator is often approaching his or her job knowing that evaluation results are often not appropriately utilised. This might significantly impact his or her performance. Hagan (2000) claims that evaluations have not been effectively utilised, and that much of this waste is due to passive bias and censorship within the field itself, which prevent the publication of weaker, less scientific findings, and to misplace client loyalty. Cherney and Sutton (2004) argue that there has been a lack of status and authority within the overall structure of local government to facilitate change in polices and practices. Furthermore, there are agencies and units both within local authorities and externally who are unwilling to be held accountable for community safety outcomes. According to Schuller (2004), there has been inadequate organisation, scheduling and institutional integration into the overall decision-making process, with impact assessment often undertaken towards the end. It has also bee n suggested that the most pertinent issue may be, not to predict accurately, but to define appropriate goals, and then set up the organisation that can effectively adapt and audit the project to achieve goals. CONCLUSION The paper has discussed the main problems confronting those who must evaluate community safety initiatives, looking at the issues of support and initiative, technical difficulties, access to data, political pressure, and low utilisation. Proper evaluations of community safety initiatives are rare. Little time and resources is available for conducting evaluation and there is a lack of commitment from government and local agencies. Barriers have been experienced throughout the evaluation process, including problem formulation, design of instruments, research deign, data collection, data analysis, findings and conclusions and utilisation. Further barriers have been presented by lack of focus on the local social, cultural and political context. Some evaluators have even stressed their incompetence, claming that they do not know how to undertake evaluation. Relevant data is often not recorded or collated to give a complete picture of the problem. Political pressure also presents a signifi cant problem as administrators find themselves in contradictory roles. Furthermore, they often want to spend all the funding available on implementation as opposed to evaluation. Finally, evaluation results have not been effectively utilised, which can have a significant negative impact on evaluators. BIBLIOGRAPHY Australian Government Attorney Generals Department (AG). (2007). â€Å"Conceptual Foundations of Evaluation Models†. Cherney, A and Sutton, A. (2004). Aussie Experience: local government community safety officers and capacity building†. Community Safety Journal, Vol.3, Iss.3, pg.31. Community Safety Centre (2000). â€Å"Research and Evaluation†. Community Safety research and Evaluation Bulletin†. No.1. Glaser, D. and Zeigler, M.S. (1974). â€Å"The Use of the Death Penalty v. the Outrage at Murder†. Crime and Delinquency, pp.333-338. Hagan, F.E. (2000). â€Å"Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology (eds)†. Allyn and Bacon. Mallock, N.A. and Braithwaite, J. (2005). â€Å"Evaluation of the Safety Improvement Program in New South Wales: study no.9†. University of New South Wales. Morton, S. (2006). â€Å"Community Safety in Practice – the importance of evaluation†. Community Safety Journal, Vol.5, Iss.1, pg.12. Read, T and Tilley, N. (2000). â€Å"Not Rocket Science? Problem-solving and crime reduction†. Crime Reduction Research Series Paper 6, Home Office. Rhodes, A. (2007). â€Å"Evaluation of Community Safety Policies and Programs†. RMIT University. Schuller, N. (2004). â€Å"Urban Growth and Community Safety: developing the impact assessment approach†. Community Safety Journal, Vol.3, Iss.4, pg.4. Varone, F., Jacob, S., De Winter, L. (2005). â€Å"Polity, Politics and Policy Evaluation in Belgium†. Evaluation, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp.253-273.

The Suppression of the Other and Self-Enlightenment in William Wordsworths Resolution and Independence :: essays research papers

My response to William Wordsworth’s Resolution and Independence focuses upon the precept that Wordsworth’s narrator uses the tale of the Leech Gatherer as a means to achieve ‘resolution’ to his own internal crisis. This is highlighted by, in my opinion, the narrator not so much paying attention to the Leech Gatherer’s tale, yet instead his pre-occupation with what he wants to interpret from the tale in order to satisfy his needs. I further argue that in doing so Wordsworth’s poem constructs the Leech Gatherer as the ‘other’, and that his ‘otherness’ is suppressed by converting him into a mere instrument by which the narrator attains enlightenment. Although my reading of the poem is heavily focused on the encounter between the narrator and the Leech Gatherer, this doesn’t occur until the eighth stanza. The poem starts with the narrator out for a stroll, feeling â€Å"as happy as a boy† marveling at the offerings of nature in the sunshine following a â€Å"roaring in the wind all night.† What struck me from these opening stanzas was the rhyming pattern used throughout the poem. Set in ‘rhyme royal’ I found the meter both inviting and accessible, which made for an entertaining read from the outset. However from this pleasant beginning, quite suddenly and apparently inexplicably during the fourth stanza, the narrator undergoes a violent mood swing: ‘As high as we have mounted in delight/In our dejection do we sink so low;/ To me that morning did it happen so.’ This sudden change left me quite disorientated and perplexed as to cause of his depression. After re-reading the passage and considering it in the context of the entire poem I felt that this mood swing was the reader’s first indication of the narrator’s status as a poet. This notion of a poet’s perspective remained at the foreground of my reading and I felt constantly reminded that the narrator’s subsequent quest for resolution and enlightenment came from the perspective of a poet, not merely an individual. My view of the narrator within this context was not an entirely positive one, as in addition to seeming over-analytical and emotionally fragile – ‘Perplexed and long ing to be comforted’ - I felt he came across as condescending toward the Leach-Gatherer; as if he came from a position of higher moral ground by virtue of his occupation as a poet. Within this context, an observation I found significant was

inferno :: essays research papers

Is there still time...   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alakhai, at the young age of 27, is a very respected and very wealthy stock broker. He has a loving wife and 2 kids which he truly adores. He met his wife five years ago when he was in his last year of college. She fell completely head over heals for him the minute she met him. At first she was a little hesitant to marry him when he asked because he really did not believe in God, and she was a devout Christian. She told him that before he married her, he had to go to church and Sunday school for two month. Well after about five weeks he had a â€Å"spiritual breakthrough.† He, realizing she would never marry him if he was not a Christian, accepted Christ when the invitation is given at the end of the Sunday school course. She was thrilled, and they were married four months later. He now lives each day saying that he is a Christian and pretending to be, but if you were able to look into his soul, you would find a heart completely cold to the Word. Then one d ay he awakes in a dark forest surrounded by nothing but trees. After a few hours, he hears a voice coming from the what seems to be every direction....   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Hello Alakhai. My name is Surealla. I am here to take you on a journey in the hope that you will see the Truth. Please do not ask questions, for we do not have much time. We must go before it is too late.† As I look before me, a young girl appears, dressed in a white robe and caring a book. Upon further observation I see that the book is actually the Bible. â€Å"Please take my hand and follow me. I want to show you something.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As we walked, it seemed like the woods were growing thicker and darker. I could smell a very faint odor that resembled that of a wet dog. As I looked ahead of me, I saw a very large door. It looked very heavy to open. It was clearly black, but it seemed to have some red tint to it. As we moved closer to it, I could see that the door was covered in...in blood? At that point I turned to run away, and behind me was a sight so frightening that I almost fainted.

Othello :: essays research papers

'Othello is a study into the potency of evil' Discuss this view of the play, paying careful attention to Iago's motives and destructive achievements (you should concerntrate on Act III Scene III though you will have to relate it to other parts of the play). Potent in its literal sense means powerful. This essay therefore is based on a statement saying that the play is a study into the power of evil. Evil is conveyed in many different ways in Othello, but they all seem to radiate from Iago. Therefore it would only be appropriate if I did a study into the evil of Iago, and how it affects everything and everybody in the play. Shakespeare conveys Iago's evil in many ways throughout Othello, and shows the methods that Iago uses in order to make Othello trust him. These methods obviously work, shown by the fact that he is repeatedly called honest; I will be commenting on these throughout my essay. He is much like the character 'Vice' from 'miracle plays' of the 16 and 17th Century that tell the audience what their plan is, and so they all become fellow conspirators in a way. This was done well in the production I saw in Manchester, as the actor playing Iago was good and convincing at talking to the crowd and making us realise that it is the enemy within we should fear most. Some people could argue that Iago was extremely lucky to have all the opportunities put in front of him, such as Emilia finding Othello's handkerchief. I, however believe that whatever the situation, Iago would be able to take the situation, and therefore Othello's downfall was imminent. An example of this would be in Act III, Scene III. Iago says, 'Look to your wife; observe her well with Casio,' which is taking advantage of knowing that Desdemona will try to defend Cassio and seem to be in love with him. In adapting to new situations, Iago uses people's strengths and weaknesses, also like in the extract above. This is a sign of his evil, reversing good things and making them bad. Over the course of Act III, Scene III, Iago turns Othello into the same kind of evil person he is. It is almost like a possessive type of evil, like in the old morality or 'miracle' plays I mentioned in a previous paragraph. One of the ways the audience can tell what state of mind Othello is in, and how much Iago's ego has influenced him, is by the his of language.

A Chronicle of the Plague

The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague by Johannes Nohl (1882–1963) is an illustrative book that traces down the flux of plague and its effects in Europe over the centuries. It examines this malady from historical and sociological perspective. The major contribution of Johannes Nohl is that he does not rely on secondary sources but has researched the contemporary chronicles to locate the pathos and miseries that this epidemic afflicted on the populations of Europe over the centuries.Scope of work is both intensive and extensive as he has provided an in-depth study that encompasses four centuries (1337-1720) and a vast geographical area from Western Europe to Russia and from Nordic ice-burgs to the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to being a historian, Johannes Nohl was also a psychoanalyst. So The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague is not a mere chronicle of the plague & its effects but also it further analyzes the socio-cultural, psychological and economic effects of th is epidemics on the whole European civilization that persist in certain societies hitherto.It beautifully blends the comprehensive accounts of the pandemic that caused almost 40 million deaths a single century during the fourteenth century alone with durable socio-cultural impact. The book also locates that how people countered these epidemics and what practical measures were adopted to tackle the problem at large scale. Nohl illustrate that Black Death changed the patterns of life and affected all facets of culture as people migrated from one geographical location to the other to escape themselves from this epidemic.First two chapters, The Aspect of the Plague and The Precursors of the Plague describe the nature of plague as it was understood by the contemporary societies. Nohl has explored through contemporary chronicles that Plague was considered a celestial phenomenon as plague use to visit the European societies sporadically in the form of a natural disaster. Furthermore, Nohl explores that most usual route of these epidemics were from India to Central Asia and then to Europe through trade groups and in Europe it used to spread along with waterways in the shape of a natural catastrophe.In the next two chapters The Medical Profession and Plague Remedies, Nohl discovers the available medical remedies in the medieval societies and how medical professionals reacted to it. Contemporary chironicles suggest that mostly people used to rely on religious conviction and pilgrimages rather than visiting a doctor. Most medical treatment was based on plant extracts. Availability and affordability of medicines were another problem due to mass scale spread and impact of the disease. Nohl looks into the various other socio-political aspects of the epidemic.For example, aadministrative precautions mostly included individual and group exclusion from the community of the hale and hearty. A systematic effort in this regards was not possible as plague used to erupt abruptly, s o it was administered intermittently. Nohl has not only provided the official and royal manuscripts and chronicles but to present the conditions and miseries of the general public, he has included chronicles of travelers, contemporary historians. These clearly manifest that plague had different effects of different social classes and each class was treated in a different way both socially and administratively.In addition to socio-cultural and political effects, epidemic of plague had cast their disturbing impact on the worldview Christian community. Church responded in its own way to the pandemic. The Church labeled it as a reaction of sins and their only remedy was ritualistic deliverance that would purge the sins. So ritualistic practices were used to organize at the individual and collective level. Some other Christian followers were of the view that world is overtaken by the evil as Divinity itself was a friend of mankind and how it could afflict it with such pathos and miseries .Another section of orthodox sect, The Luciferians were of the view that God had toppled down Lucifer, their lord, and had taken over heaven. So this is a natural response of this tragedy. (Nohl 1924, 161-163). Some other compared the disease as an Arial and celestial phenomenon that was beyond the strength and capacity of mankind. This view was further reinforced by the fact that prior to the Black Death, in 1117, the eruption of plague was coincided with a cosmic phenomenon that medieval mind was unable to comprehend. Nohl states in this regard thatIn 1117, in January, a comet passed like a fiery army from North toward the orient, the moon was o’ercast blood-red in an eclipse, a year later a light appeared more brilliant than the sun,. This was followed by great cold, famine and plague, of which one-third of the humanity have said to have perished. Nohl further describes same coincidences in 1568, 1582 and 1606 when Netherlands, Prague and Vienna were badly affected with pl ague. This shaped the general mentality that plague is an extra human phenomenon and mankind had no control over it. The social fabric of the whole European society was transformed by these notions and beliefs.Nohl depicts that beside human causalities, first social causality was breakdown of social order. There was â€Å"an incapacity to believe that so uncanny a disease as the plague could be attributable to natural causes† which led â€Å"the fateful misconception of [its] artificial production† (Nohl 171). This belief molded their worldview and they become more recluse and a believers in the fictitious remedial rituals. Nohl also illustrates an interesting but tragic fact that plague was intentionally passed on to others. He located the motive for this deliberate infection as infectants did not want to undergo the agonies alone.Furthermore, it was common belief that one could liberate oneself of his contagion by transmitting it to others (Nohl 171). Nohl also provi des evidences when someone infected his/her rival or enemy due to sheer malice and enmity. Sometime, Lutherans were blamed for this curse but more often Jews were labeled as propellants of this deadly disease. So they were persecuted on mass level to purge the society from this malady but it is a fact that Jews used running streams for their sanitary purposes unlike Christian who used contaminated public wells that were often a prime cause for dispersal of various diseases.Toward end, the book has an interesting chapter, The Erotic Element in the Plague that relation sexuality with deadly disease. This book covers all aspects of Black Death pertaining to the contemporary medieval societies and all these are supported with the contemporary chronicles. It not only provides a synopsis of whole epidemic history but provides an in-depth analysis of the entire phenomenon. References Nohl, Johannes. 1924. The Black Death: A Chronicle of the Plague. Translated by C. H. Clarke. New York: Har per and Brothers Publishers.