Publishers Weekly
10/10/2016
Wickham (Sleepwalking into a New World), professor of medieval history at Oxford, expands his usual focus on medieval Italy to cover the entire European Middle Ages. His aim is to abolish the belief that the years 500–1500 C.E. constituted a stagnant period between the fall of Rome and the recovery of knowledge during the Renaissance. Wickham stresses changes in polities, economic structures, and worldview, emphasizing various alterations over time and place. For example, in Germanic areas, a land-based economy was governed by assemblies and advisors that lords ignored at their peril; Byzantium carried on a Roman tradition despite fluctuating borders and invasions. Wickham argues that the conquests of Islam did not cut Europe off as much as previously believed, nor was medieval European society blindly in thrall to the Catholic Church. To bolster the latter point, he shows the diversity of popular practices over time. Wickham also addresses Eastern Europe, which is frequently ignored in medieval accounts, and debates within current academia, such as the recent idea that people did not see themselves as individuals until the late Middle Ages. This is a dazzling race through a complex millennium, and solid background knowledge is essential before entering, but for the serious historian this is a thought-provoking study by an expert. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
"A dazzling race through a complex millennium."—Publishers Weekly"A thorough survey of the European continent in the time between antiquity and modernity. . . . Far-ranging, fluent, and thoughtful—of considerable interest to students of history writ large, and not just of Europe."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Wickham’s interpretation of the European Middle Ages is one of vibrancy and dynamism, a welcome reminder of why many people find this period fascinating.”—Jonathan R. Lyon, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Historians of the medieval period and beyond, however, should benefit from Wickham’s particular vision of the Middle Ages as a series of major turning points knit together by structural forces. His assessment of the respective roles played by various elements in this tapestry is thought provoking."—Robert Sutherland-Harris, Renaissance and Reformation“Medieval Europe is a testament to Chris Wickham’s authoritative command of the material and to his clarity of thought . . . thought-provoking.”—James Davis, Renaissance Quarterly“[The] broad purview, memorable terseness, and focus on what is important make this book well worth reading.”—Lawrence G. Duggan, Anglican and Episcopal History"Writing with great wit, style and clarity, Chris Wickham presents to us a powerful account of the middle ages as a period of considerable dynamism and massive change. Emperors, popes, theologians, knights and mystics are found herein, but so too are cities, peasants, merchants, and the material experiences of the many and not just the few. Above all else, Wickham shows us the economic and structural bones beneath the skin. This is the middle ages that the twenty-first century needs to know about – not the gaudy antithesis of 'modernity' but the centuries of human toil, ingenuity and compromise in which real people made choices, albeit not in circumstances of their own choosing."—John Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge"Medieval Europe is a model of clarity and accessibility, the superlative answer to a challenge taken up by an eminent and wide-ranging historian: to interpret the history of a millennium in 250 pages. This yields a sense of intellectual adventure that remains compelling throughout, as Chris Wickham engages his readers in his arguments, choices and interpretations, and keeps them on their toes."—Mayke de Jong, Utrecht University"This is tremendously good. Chris Wickham has an outstandingly keen and understanding eye for the diversities of life across a broadly-framed Europe, and for changes over time. Impressive geographic reach is combined with nuance, and a keen sense of the particularities of different historical landscapes. The author continually makes illuminating connections and comparisons, and does not flinch from offering clear judgments or nailing his own colours to the mast. Indeed, he has a consistently refreshing ability to get the reader away from predictable or ingrained ways of thinking about and judging things."—Len Scales, University of Durham"Fascinating, judicious, authoritative: by far the best single book about the Middle Ages. I wish this had been around earlier in my teaching career. Perhaps Wickham's most unusual accomplishment is that this survey never seems hurried. Without apparent strain, details and examples of historical trends are related to grand themes and changes."—Paul Freedman, author of Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination
Minerva - Dominic Green
“Medieval Europe is a remarkably detailed and readable book, and, at only 250 pages in length it is, unlike the Middle Ages, both brief and clear.”—Dominic Green, Minerva
Bookseller
‘This bold, sweeping narrative covers the entire sweep of European history between the years 400-1500, focusing on important changes century by century, accompanied by illuminating vignettes which underscore how shifting events affected individual lives.’ - Bookseller
TLS - Katherine Harvey
“A timely consideration of an oft-considered subject… Wickham has managed to produce a volume which combines brevity with deep learning, compelling argument and an authoritative and even-handed tone.”—Katherine Harvey, TLS
JUNE 2017 - AudioFile
Wickham’s survey of European history from 400 CE to 1500 CE is dense and abstract, assuming both a wide and detailed familiarity with the period. Derek Perkins’s narration of the audiobook’s often complex sentences uses tone, pauses, and emphasis to elucidate their meaning. Still, both those sentences and the arguments they convey require close attention. He has a fine voice, and his reading is articulate, intelligent, and unaffected. He has the gift of making texts seem like his own work, which he’s narrating to, or simply telling, the listener. Each sentence benefits from his relaxed yet polished clarity; by his interpretation, he lends the listener his own perspicacity. Nonetheless, it’s easy to become lost. This difficult listen will best repay only highly knowledgeable listeners. W.M. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2016-09-22
A thorough survey of the European continent in the time between antiquity and modernity.Traditionally, the Middle Ages are said to begin with the fall of Rome. As to the periods end, some have placed it as late as the arrival of Columbus to Hispaniola, some a century before. Wickham (Medieval History/Univ. of Oxford), author of the excellent survey The Inheritance of Rome (2009), has little interest in precisely setting the dates or connecting modern outcomes to past causes. History is not teleological: that is to say, historical development does not go to; it goes from, he writes. What it goes from is a time when the Roman Empire splintered into smaller, more local states that would occasionally be gathered into later efforts at empirethe one of Charlemagne, for instance, namesake of an era whose leaders presided over the largest-scale attempt to rethink politics in the whole of the middle ages. There were advantages to smallness and localism; the Saxons, for instance, were difficult to subdue because they were not a unitary people, whereas post-Saxon England, more unified in that sense, was relatively easy to rule, cohesive and densely governed. Along the way, Wickham examines modern misunderstandings, particularly about medieval politics. Though many systems were parliamentary in name, he observes, parliaments tended to serve the monarch and not the people, though the people were manyas he notes, most medieval people were bound to subsistence agriculture, the peasantry as polity. In keeping with his earlier work, the Roman Empire is a constant reference for both Wickham and the people themselves; as he writes, one thing which remained constant throughout the middle ages was the importance of the old Roman imperial frontier. In a very real way, teleology aside, the modern world is framed by the divisions within and limits of Rome, whose influence, Wickham chronicles, was felt in other ways far beyond the time of the last emperor. Far-ranging, fluent, and thoughtfulof considerable interest to students of history writ large, and not just of Europe.
