Customer Review

Stephen Balbach
5.0 out of 5 stars Reliable, enjoyable, revealing
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2007
Verified Purchase
One of the few reliable, comprehensive, readable and enjoyable single-volume histories of the Middle Ages (Cantor covers 300-1500). It represents a career of teaching Medieval history to undergrads in New York, distilled down to what Cantor believes "most people want to know" about the Middle Ages. It focuses on those events, people, things and ideas which were truly unique in moving Western history forward - there is not much war-reportage, and a lot of intellectual history (intellectual history in the Middle Ages = Christianity), but he does get the important battles (Milvian Bridge, Bouvines, 100 years, etc..) It is a smooth narrative with a sort of BBC "Connections" flow from topic to topic, putting things into historical context and showing how one thing led to another and part of larger themes. It is a survey, Cantor does not present a new theory but uses best practices and state of the art of Medieval scholarship ca. 1990 (for the updated edition). It is a high-level map of the terrain. Each page was filled with insight and "ah-ha!" moments.
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Product Details

The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History
byNorman F. Cantor
4.5 out of 5 stars
190 global ratings