Used
Paperback
1999
$3.28
R H C Davis's well-known and well-loved A History of Medieval Europe rapidly established itself as the standard introductory survey of the period and is a bestseller to this day. The breadth and authority of the book is to be expected in the work of such a major scholar, but the acute selection of vivid detail and the vigour of his writing are those of a born communicator. A History of Medieval Europe is in two parts. The first, The Dark Ages, examines the impact of the Barbarian invasions on Constantine's Christianized empire, and the gradual emergence, by the end of the ninth century, of a new social, economic and political order. There are important chapters on the Church and the Papacy, the coming of Islam, and the rise and fall of the Frankish Empire. The second part, The High Middle Ages, takes the reader from the Saxon Empire through to an examination of the European economy in the mid-thirteenth century. Important topics covered in this period include the spread of monasticism, the reform of the Papacy, the crusades, and feudal monarchy.