Europe in the High Middle Ages (The Penguin History of Europe)

Description

"The Penguin History of Europe series... is one of contemporary publishing s great projects."--New Statesman

It was an age of hope and possibility, of accomplishment and expansion. Europe s High Middle Ages spanned the Crusades, the building of Chartres Cathedral, Dante s Inferno, and Thomas Aquinas. Buoyant, confident, creative, the era seemed to be flowering into a true renaissance-until the disastrous fourteenth century rained catastrophe in the form of plagues, famine, and war. 

In Europe in the High Middle Ages, William Chester Jordan paints a vivid, teeming landscape that captures this lost age in all its glory and complexity. Here are the great popes who revived the power of the Church against the secular princes; the writers and thinkers who paved the way for the Renaissance; the warriors who stemmed the Islamic tide in Spain and surged into Palestine; and the humbler estates, those who found new hope and prosperity until the long night of the 1300s. From high to low, from dramatic events to social structures, Jordan s account brings to life this fascinating age. Part of the Penguin History of Europe series, edited by David Cannadine.