The Middle Ages

Morris Bishop's highly readable survey of The Middle Ages condenses a thousand years of history often dismissed for its darkness, violence, and superstition and incorrectly portrayed as an unfortunate chasm between the glory of ancient times and the Renaissance that drew on a renewed interest in the......more

Do you want to know what happened from about 300 AD to around 1000 or so? Then this book gives you good, solid chapters that make sense. We had it for our Medieval European history course in university, and it was pretty good. I read it a few times in that regard, as you do when you read the same cha......more

Like your British grandfather telling stories by the fire. There are no notes or references, so who knows how accurate this is, but Bishop's a good storyteller.......more

Before buying this book, set your expectation straight: it isn't an event-driven history book with details about every war and political change. It's about life and the state of the art throughout the middle ages. Historical events are included only if they help making the point. Knowing that it is a......more