I spent a few years reading American History and then decided to try European, starting with the Middle Ages. I am no historian and I have minimal prior knowledge, so I was looking for a good introduction to the Middle Ages. I tried Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age and quickly set it aside. It contained errors even an amateur like me could spot. I then tried Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 (The Penguin History of Europe) and less quickly set it aside. Wickham is a well researched book but definitely not for beginners, despite its marketing. Then I found this book by Bauer, which was perfect for my needs.

Let me start by saying something critical that actually is a positive. This is the reason I give the book just four stars. It is also the reason I like the book so much and highly recommend it:

This is old fashioned history, the way our grand parents learned history. The focus is on kings, queens, emperors and the generals who served them. I am half way through the book and long ago lost track of all the wars, assassinations and uprisings. Discussions of how the common people lived? There is none of that. There is no mention of developments in science, commerce, the arts, philosophy, etc. Slavery? Taxation? The treatment of women? You will have to look elsewhere.

I say this is a strength because the Middle Ages spans an enormous period of time. I could read ten books on the period and still feel I was only scraping the surface. But you have to start somewhere just to get "oriented" to the period, and learning about rulers, wars and shifting borders is an excellent orientation. Who were the Franks? Who was Justinian? Who were the Vandals? Who were the Persians? Who was Leo the Great? These are the sort of things you need to know before you can delve more deeply into other aspects of the history, and these are the sort of things Bauer covers.

OK, let me tell you what is awesome about this book.

1. It is highly readable. The book is broken down into short chapters that are like "episodes." Each episode is almost like a short story, but they fit together into a complete history. The writing is engaging, with enough focus on rulers' foibles, adventures and intrigues to fill a bookshelf of novels.

2. Maps!!! There is a map accompanying almost every chapter. I haven't been paying close attention, but I don't recall a single chapter without one. These aren't generic maps the publisher dropped in, with place names unrelated to what is discussed in the accompanying chapters. No. Each map is drawn specifically to clarify the text. My only problem with the maps is that, in the Kindle edition, they are very low resolution. If you can't read a place name in one of the maps, zooming in probably won't help. The zoomed name will be pixelated.

3. World view: Bauer does not limit herself to Europe. She also covers North Africa, the Arab world, Persia, India, Tibet, China, the Eurasian Plains, Korea, Japan and even, briefly, the Americas. Most people will read this book because they are interested in Europe, but you would miss much focusing exclusively there. Reading Bauer, you see Islam and the Tang Dynasty rising simultaneously as the Byzantine Empire falters. What happens in one part of the world does impact others. For example, the rise of Islam places pressure on Byzantine, which gives the Lombards the chance they need to evict most of the remaining Byzantine troops from Italy — and hopes of restoring the Western Roman Empire quietly fade.

Let me close by qualifying one thing I have said. While topics such as science, commerce or the lives of common people receive little mention, religion is covered extensively and well. You can't understand the Middle Ages if you don't understand the role of religion. Bauer covers Christianity, the religions that preceded it, heresies, ecumenical councils, the rise of Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and more, all with insights into how rulers exploited religion to unify or control subjects. I have learned much. For example, I never knew Islam was built on a pre-existing Arab religion that already embraced a deity called Allah and a holy city Mecca.

Overall, this is a highly readable introduction to the Middle Ages. It is not history at its best, but that flaw is its strength.

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Rating	4.6 (753 ratings)
Price	$25.79
Category	Asia

The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade