Introduction to Medieval Europe 300–1500

Author: Wim Blockmans
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317934253
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 508

Book Description
Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1500 provides a comprehensive survey of this complex and varied formative period of European history. Covering themes as diverse as barbarian migrations, the impact of Christianization, the formation of nations and states, the emergence of an expansionist commercial economy, the growth of cities, the Crusades, the effects of plague, and the intellectual and cultural life of the Middle Ages, the book explores the driving forces behind the formation of medieval society and the directions in which it developed and changed. In doing this, the authors cover a wide geographic expanse, including Western interactions with the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic World. Now in full colour, this second edition contains a wealth of new features that help to bring this fascinating era to life, including: A detailed timeline of the period, putting key events into context Primary source case boxes Full colour illustrations throughout New improved maps A glossary of terms Annotated suggestions for further reading The book is supported by a free companion website with resources including, for instructors, assignable discussion questions and all of the images and maps in the book available to download, and for students, a comparative interactive timeline of the period and links to useful websites. The website can be found at www.routledge.com/cw/blockmans. Clear and stimulating, the second edition of Introduction to Medieval Europe is the ideal companion to studying Europe in the Middle Ages at undergraduate level.

Introduction to Early Medieval Western Europe, 300-900

Author: Matthew Innes
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415215077
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 552

Book Description
This comprehensive survey synthesises a quarter of a century of pathbreaking research in an accessible manner for undergraduate students. Matthew Innes combines an account of the historical background of the period with discussion of the social, economic, cultural and political structures within it.

A History of the Middle Ages, 300–1500

Author: John M. Riddle
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442246863
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 558

Book Description
This clear and comprehensive text covers the Middle Ages from the classical era to the late medieval period. Distinguished historian John Riddle provides a cogent analysis of the rulers, wars, and events—both natural and human—that defined the medieval era. Taking a broad geographical perspective, Riddle includes northern and eastern Europe, Byzantine civilization, and the Islamic states. Each, he convincingly shows, offered values and institutions—religious devotion, toleration and intolerance, laws, ways of thinking, and changing roles of women—that presaged modernity. In addition to traditional topics of pen, sword, and word, the author explores other driving forces such as science, religion, and technology in ways that previous textbooks have not. He also examines such often-overlooked issues as medieval gender roles and medicine and seminal events such as the crusades from the vantage point of both Muslims and eastern and western Christians. In addition to a thorough chronological narrative, the text offers humanizing features to engage students. Each chapter opens with a theme-setting vignette about the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people. The book also introduces students to key controversies and themes in historiography by featuring in each chapter a prominent medieval historian and how his or her ideas have shaped contemporary thinking about the Middle Ages. Richly illustrated with color plates, this lively, engaging book will immerse readers in the medieval world, an era that shaped the foundation for the modern world.

Medieval Worlds

Author: Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran Cruz
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin College Division
ISBN: 9780395560877
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 612

Book Description
This text, designed for use in one- and two-term medieval history courses, is based on a political framework that includes social and cultural history. It emphasizes both high and popular culture, exploring what life was like in the court, the city, the countryside, and academia. The text primarily focuses on Europe, but also gives extensive attention to the areas that affected Europe, such as Byzantium and the Islamic world.

Central Europe in the High Middle Ages

Author: Nora Berend
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521781566
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 549

Book Description
A groundbreaking comparative history of the formation of Bohemia, Hungary and Poland, from their origins in the eleventh century.

An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000-1500

Author: Steven Epstein
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052188036X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This book examines the most important themes in European social and economic history from the beginning of growth around the year 1000 to the first wave of global exchange in the 1490s. These five hundred years witnessed the rise of economic systems, such as capitalism, and the social theories that would have a profound influence on the rest of the world over the next five centuries. The basic story, the human search for food, clothing, and shelter in a world of violence and scarcity, is a familiar one, and the work and daily routines of ordinary women and men are the focus of this volume. Surveying the full extent of Europe, from east to west and north to south, Steven Epstein illuminates family life, economic and social thought, war, technologies, and other major themes while giving equal attention to developments in trade, crafts, and agriculture. The great waves of famine and then plague in the fourteenth century provide the centerpiece of a book that seeks to explain the causes of Europe's uneven prosperity and its response to catastrophic levels of death. Epstein also sets social and economic developments within the context of the Christian culture and values that were common across Europe and that were in constant tension with Muslims, Jews, and dissidents within its boundaries and the great Islamic and Tartar states on its frontier.

The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages

Author: J. F. Verbruggen
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 9780851155708
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 430

Book Description
He begins by analysing the sources for our knowledge of the military history of the period, assessing their reliability: some chroniclers exaggerate, others are careful observers or have access to official records. There follows an examination of the constituent parts of the medieval army, knights and footsoldiers, equipment and terms of service, behaviour on the field, and psychology, before the problematic question of medieval tactics is addressed through analysis of accounts of a series of major battles. Strategy is discussed in the context of these battles: whether to seek battle, fight a defensive war, or attempt a war of conquest.

The Middle Ages

Author: Miri Rubin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199697299
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
The Middle Ages (c.500-1500) includes a thousand years of European history. In this Very Short Introduction Miri Rubin tells the story of the times through the people and their lifestyles. Including stories of kingship and Christian salvation, agriculture and trade, Rubin demonstrates the remarkable nature and legacy of the Middle Ages.

People and Space in the Middle Ages, 300-1300

Author: Wendy Davies
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Book Description
This book compares community definition and change in the temperate zones of southern Britain and northern France with the starkly contrasting regions of the Spanish meseta and Iceland. Local communities were fundamental to human societies in the pre-industrial world, crucial in supporting their members and regulating their relationships, as well as in wider society. While geographical and biological work on territoriality is very good, existing archaeological literature is rarely time-specific and lacks wider social context; most of its premises are too simple for the interdependencies of the early medieval world. Historical work, by contrast, has a weak sense of territory and no sense of scale; like much archaeological work, there is confusion about distinctions - and relationships - between kin groups, neighbourhood groups, collections of tenants and small polities. The contributors to this book address what determined the size and shape of communities in the early historic past and the ways that communities delineated themselves in physical terms. The roles of the environment, labour patterns, the church and the physical proximity of residences in determining community identity are also examined. Additional themes include social exclusion, the community as an elite body, and the various stimuli for change in community structure. Major issues surrounding relationships between the local and the governmental are investigated: did larger polities exploit pre-existing communities, or did developments in governance call local communities into being?

Internal Colonization in Medieval Europe

Author: Felipe Fernández-Armesto
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 436

Book Description
Around the year 1000 Rodulfus Glaber described France as being in the throes of a building boom. He may have been the first writer to perceive the early medieval period as a Dark Age that was ending to be replaced by a better world. This book discusses the ways in which this transformation took place.