by Wim Blockmans (Author), Peter Hoppenbrouwers (Author)
Surveying the years between 300 and 1550, this outstanding textbook brings a long, complex and varied period of European history vividly to life.
Covering themes as diverse as barbarian migrations, the growth of cities, kingship, religious reform, the Crusades, commerce, the Black Death, and the intellectual and cultural life of the Middle Ages, it explores the driving forces behind the formation of medieval society and the directions in which it developed and changed.
This inspiring textbook:
Taking a world that, by modern standards, was technologically underdeveloped, poor, unjust, violent, and dominated by figures of almost mythical proportions such as Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Joan of Arc, Wim Blockmanns and Peter Hoppenbrouwers have produced a textbook that should, without doubt, take its rightful place on the reading list of any student of European history
Format: Paperback
Pages: 392
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 30 Jan 2007
ISBN 10: 0415346991
ISBN 13: 9780415346993
'An inspiring and magisterial survey of twelve centuries of Medieval History. Written with verve and flair but never patronizing or too simplifying, it provides an up-to-date synthesis of recent scholarship on the Middle Ages by two outstanding Dutch medievalists.' - Elizabeth van Houts, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, UK
'I believe this is the best medieval history textbook I have read and I will enjoy using it on my medieval history courses.' - William H. TeBrake, University of Maine, USA
Reviews of the Dutch edition
'When it comes to politics, economics and society, Blockmans and Hoppenbrouwers have succeeded in a compelling way to evoke recognition: here are our ancestors, the giants on whose shoulders we stand.' - NRC Handelsblad
'The authors show medieval society in all its aspects. Its broad approach is one of the book's great merits.' - De Volkskrant
'The first thing to note about this book is its accessibility. The style in which it is written enables a wide audience to readily assimilate the information in the light of the broader themes accross the period... This is all achieved within a clear interpretive framework that makes use of the latest ideas and research. To support the text there are over a hundred photographs, maps, tables and engravings which the reader will find invaluable... This is a thoroughly professional, readable and very enjoyable book that does not disappoint. It is meticulously researched and expertly delivered... In many respects it surpasses those written by my old favourites Davis and Koenigsberger, not least in its style and more modern approach. I would highly recommend this book to all with even the remotest of interests in this period. - Leslie J M Obre, SATH: Teaching History Review
'This splendid textbook [is] ... a good source of recent bibliography' - International Review of Biblical Studies, Germany
'This is an interesting and well written synthesis which introduces the reader to recent scholarship and provides a clear, but not simplistic, narrative and anlysis...This, and the lucid interpretative framework in which the chronological and descriptive elements are anchored, make Introduction to Medieval Europe a particularly useful teaching tool'. - International Medieval Bibliography