The Middle Ages

The Middle Ages: A New History, 1000-1400 provides students with an engaging and enlightening journey through the historical events, social and personal dynamics, intellectual developments, and religious beliefs of the Middle Ages.

The book begins with an overview of Europe in the Early Middle Ages. Proceeding chapters cover the peasantry and rural society; religious life and the church; political history in Iberia, France, Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, and Italy in the 11th century; and trade, commerce, guilds, and the economy. Students learn about Islamic, Jewish, and Christian intellectual traditions, and the experiences of the disenfranchised—the poor, minorities, women, and “others.” They study key political events that shaped Scandinavia, the Holy Roman Empire, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries. Additional chapters address topics related to the church and its institutions—including the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Mendicant Orders, and more—as well as secular administration, finance, and legal systems. Closing chapters discuss medieval popular culture and entertainment, as well as the many calamities that struck Europe between 1300 and 1400, including famine, plague, war, rebellions, and a conflicted and weakened church.

Illuminating and well-researched, The Middle Ages is an ideal textbook for courses in world and European history.