9780195301953

The Worlds of Medieval Europe updates and revises traditional textbook representations of the Middle Ages by balancing the conventional focus on political affairs, especially those of northern Europe, with equally detailed attention to medieval society as it developed in the Mediterranean. The result is a nuanced portrayal of a multifarious western world that was sharply divided between its northern and southern aspects. By also integrating the histories of the Islamic and Byzantine world into the main narrative, the text brings new life to the continuum of interaction--social, cultural, and intellectual, as well as commercial--that existed among all three societies. In addition, it describes ways in which the medieval Latin West attempted to understand the unified and rational structure of the human cosmos, which they believed existed beneath the observable diversity and disorder of the world. This effort to re-create a human ordering of "unity through diversity" provides an essential key to understanding medieval Europe and the ways in which it regarded and reacted to the worlds around it. The Worlds of Medieval Europe is an ideal text for undergraduate courses in medieval history, Western civilization, the history of Christianity, and Muslim-Christian relations. It also serves as an excellent supplement for courses on the history of a specific country in the medieval period, the history of medieval art, or the history of the European economy.

The Early Middle Ages: The Third Through Ninth Centuries
The Roman World at Its Height.
The Geography of Empire
The Role of the Military
Roman Society
Roman Government
The Challenges of the Third Century
Reform, Recovery, Persecution, and Favor
Suggested Reading
The Rise of Christianity.
Before Christ
The Growth of the New Religion
The Problem of Persecution
The Problem of Heresy
Constantine and Theodosius: An Imperial Church
Responses to Imperialization
Suggested Reading
Early Germanic Society.
Germanic Life
Migrations and Invasions
Europe's First Kingdoms
Germanic Christianity and the Fourth ""Doctor of the Church""
Suggested Reading
Cloister and Culture.
The Rise of Monasticism in the East
The Rise of Monasticism in the West
Cultural Life in the West: Cassiodorus, Boethius, and St. Benedict
Suggested Reading
The Emergence of the Medieval Worlds.
Continuity and Change in Northern Europe
Continuity and Change in the Mediterranean
The Rise of Islam
A Tripartite World
Suggested Reading
The Carolingian Era.
The ""Do-Nothing"" Kings and the Rise of the Carolingians
The Carolingian Monarchy
Carolingian Administration
Carolingian Society
The Carolingian Cultural Renewal
Suggested Reading
The Central Middle Ages: The Tenth Through Twelfth Centuries
The Time of Troubles.
Internal Disintegration
Trouble from the North
Trouble from the East
Trouble from the South
The End of the World?
Suggested Reading
Revolutions on Land and Sea.
Changes on the Land
A Peasant Society Emerges
Changes on the Sea
A Maritime Society Emerges
Suggested Reading
A New Europe Emerges: North and South.
The Rise of Feudal Society
The First German Empire
The Rise of Capetian France
The Anglo-Norman Realm
The Spanish Kingdoms
The Italian Scene
Suggested Reading
The Reform of the Church.
The Origins of the Reform
The Papal Revolution
Christendom and the East
Monastic Reforms
Suggested Reading
The Renaissances of the Twelfth Century.
Aristotle, Anselm, Abelard, and Ibn Rushd
Law and Canon Law
The Recovery of Science
The Rise of the Universities
Courtly Life, Love, and Literature
Suggested Reading
The Papal Monarchy.
Church Against State Once More
The Consolidation of Papal Authority
The Revival of Heresy
The Albigensian Crusade and the Rise of the Inquisition
Suggested Reading
The Late Middle Ages
Politics in the Thirteenth Century.
The Rise of Representative Institutions
England and France
Germany, Italy, and the Papacy
The New Mediterranean Superpowers
Byzantium and Islam in the Thirteenth Century
Suggested Reading
Art and Intellect in the Thirteenth Century.
Scholasticism
The Gothic Vision
Science and Technology
Aspects of Popular Culture
Suggested Reading
Daily Life at the Medieval Zenith.
Economic Changes
Peasants' Lives
Townsfolks' Lives
The Question of Literacy
Sex Lives of the Not-So-Rich and the Not-So-Famous
Suggested Reading
Changes in Religious Life.
The Importance of Being Penitent
The Importance of Being Poor
The Humanization of Christ and the Cult of the Virgin
Mysticism
Suggested Reading
The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century.
Economic Difficulties
The Great Famine
The Black Death
War Everywhere
Challenges to Church Unity
Suggested Reading
Signs of a New Era.
William of Ockham
Marsilius of Padua
Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer
Chistine de Pizan
Suggested Reading
Two Epilogues
Closings In, Closings Out.
The Last Years of Byzantium
The Search for a New Route to the East
Closing In on Muslim Spain
The Expulsions of the Jews
Closing In Forever: The Forced Cloistering of Women Religious
Suggested Reading
The Renaissance in Medieval Context.
Economies New and Old circa 1400
The Meaning of Humanism
The Canonization of Classical Culture
The Rejection of the Middle Ages
Suggested Reading
The Medieval Popes
The Carolingians
The Carpetians
France: The Valois
England: The Norman and Plantagenet Dynasties
England: The Lancastrian and Yorkist Dynasties
Germany: The Ottonia, Salian, and Hohenstaufen Dynasties
Germany: The Late Medieval Emperors
The Spanish Kingdoms, 1000-1250
The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1500
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The Worlds of Medieval Europe

0195301951

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