Assignment

William Rosen's Justinian's Flea offers a fresh and highly readable account of a dramatic and pivotal period in the history of Europe and the world, beginning with the disintegration of the Roman Empire, continuing through the efforts to reunify the imperial lands under the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire), and culminating with the Muslim conquest of former Roman lands in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Iberian Peninsula.

The book seeks to integrate human history with natural history, or more precisely the effects of disease on the course of human history. Most people have heard or learned something about the Black Death, the plague that killed something in the neighborhood of between a quarter and third of the population of Europe in the 14th century (and also ravaged parts of the Islamic Middle East, Central Asia and China). Our book deals with an earlier and less familiar outbreak of the plague that the author believes had a much more dramatic effect on the long-term history of Europe, and the world. But beyond the effects of disease, the book also gives the reader lively portrayals of personalities, political life, economic realities, and culture during the period of transition from the classical world of Rome to the early Middle Ages.

The Assignment

Once you are done reading the book: Write a paper, no more than 5 pages double-spaced pages, in which you reflect on the important and most interesting points made in the book, including your thoughts on the connection between human and natural history and on the strength of the author's hypothesis and arguments.

Book: Justinian's Flea by William Rosen.

The guidelines allow a lot of room for maneuverability in terms of style of writing and content. I do NOT expect from you a specific format. What I do want to see is that you actually read the book, engaged with its narrative and arguments, and explicated your thoughts on it in a lucid and thoughtful essay.

You should feel free to be judgmental about the book, including commenting on things that were new/old news/interesting/banal/thought- provoking/prosaic/enlightening/non-sensical, etc. to/for you.