Edited by George Holmes. Western Civilization was created in Medieval Europe and by the 1300s was the most advanced in the whole world. The book covers 1,000 years of history, chapter by chapter. A great deal of information is presented very readably.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Medieval Europe brings together leading scholars to present a richly detailed survey of Europe from the collapse of the Roman Empire to the dawn of the Renaissance. Combining authoritative scholarship with hundreds of illustrations, maps, and photographs, the volume offers a vivid portrait of a thousand years that laid the foundations of the modern Western world.
The book explores every aspect of medieval civilization, from kingship, warfare, and political power to religion, commerce, art, literature, and everyday life. It traces the rise of kingdoms and empires, the spread of Christianity, the Viking age, the Crusades, the growth of towns and universities, and the cultural achievements that transformed Europe during the Middle Ages.
Rather than concentrating solely on political events, the contributors examine the people and institutions that shaped medieval society. Nobles, merchants, monks, craftsmen, scholars, and peasants all find their place in a narrative that explains how Europe’s diverse kingdoms gradually developed into the nations and cultures that would dominate the centuries that followed.
Full coverage is given to all aspects of life in a thousand-year period which saw the creation of western civilization: from the empires and kingdoms of Charlemagne, the Byzantines, and the Hundred Years War, to the ideas of the Crusades; the building of great cathedrals and the social catastrophe of the Black Death; the cultural worlds of chivalric knights, popular festivals, and new art forms.
The chapters show the movement of the center of gravity in European life from the Mediterranean to the north; and the authors explore the contrast between Byzantine and Renaissance cultures in the south and the new, complex political and social structures of north-west Europe, which by 1300 had the most advanced civilization the world had ever seen.
Over 200 illustrations, including 24 color plates, amplify the text; and the picture is completed with comprehensive reference material including maps, genealogies, and a full chronology.
Softcover, 392 pages
