In this indispensable volume, one of America's ranking scholars combines a life's work of research and teaching with the art of lively narration. Both authoritative and beautifully told, The Middle Ages is the full story of the thousand years between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance - a time that saw the rise of kings and emperors, the flowering of knighthood, the development of Europe, the increasing power of the Catholic Church, and the advent

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Covering ten centuries and crisscrossing Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, this popular history sheds new light on the European Middle Ages, revealing a time of beauty and communion that flourished alongside dark brutality.

This book explores the lives of knights.

The treasures in gold and bronze that came to Europe were partly the reason why the Northwestern Isles proved so attractive for the Celts. Veins of copper in the cliffs could be seen from the sea along the southern Irish coast. This program traces the role of tin, copper, bronze, and gold, and the men who mined them, as well as the craft of the smith in Celtic areas, reminding us that Goibniu, one of the Celtic gods, was a blacksmith.

Certainly through no fault of its own, Poland has been like a pawn, its territory traded between Germans and Russians, among others. Only one major victory in a millennium marks Poland's sovereignty: the Battle of Tannenberg. Like other nations that called on foreign troops to help them quell domestic insurrections, the Poles were conquered by their own invited guests, the German Templars or Teutonic Order. The original goal was to crush pagan nationalities,...

"Traces the life of a typical knight in medieval times from birth to death, including childhood, becoming a knight, going to war, pilgrimages, and knightly duties. Includes primary source quotes"--Provided by publisher.

This book describes Gothic art, which flourished in the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, presenting information on artists and sculptors such as Villard de Honnecourt, Nicola Pisano, Giovanni Pisano, Duccio di Buoninsegna, Simone Martini, and other artists.

The 14th - 18th centuries was a notable period in history that radically transformed the way we see the world and our place in it. Traditional understandings and worldviews faced major challenges and changes in science, philosophy and society. This was a revolutionary time for scholars, artists, radicals, scientists, free thinkers and philosophers. It was a time for the new ideas which would ultimately shape our modern world.

The early wooden homes have long since disappeared, but there are reminders of the ancient past everywhere-in Cornwall, in the stone forts of County Clare, on the Isle of Lewis and at Glenelg, and particularly in the poorest areas along the Atlantic fringes of western Ireland and the Outer Hebrides, where traces of the ancient way of life still exist.

After the long period of cultural decline known as the Dark Ages, Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science and began to develop a vision of Western society that remains at the heart of Western civilization today.
By placing the image of the Virgin Mary at the center of their churches and their lives, medieval people exalted womanhood to a level unknown in any previous society. For the first time, men...