Millennium

by Ian Mortimer

Overview

In Millennium, bestselling historian Ian Mortimer takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of the last ten centuries of Western history. It is a journey into a past vividly brought to life and bursting with ideas, that pits one century against another in his quest to measure which century saw the greatest change.We journey from a time when there was a fair chance of your village being burned to the ground by invaders — and dried human dung was a recommended cure for cancer — to a world in which explorers sailed into the unknown and civilizations came into conflict with each other on an epic scale. Here is a story of godly scientists, fearless adventurers, cold-hearted entrepreneurs, and strong-minded women — a story of discovery, invention, revolution, and cataclysmic shifts in perspective. Millennium is a journey into the past like no other. Our understanding of human development will never be the same again, and the lessons we learn along the way are profound ones for us all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681772868
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	11/08/2016
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	589,951
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Dr. Ian Mortimer has been described by the London Times as "the most remarkable medieval historian of our time." He is the author of The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain and Outcasts of Time, both available from Pegasus Books. He was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society and is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Please visit his website at www.ianmortimer.com. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1001-1100 The Eleventh Century 9

The growth of the Western Church 14

Peace 20

The discontinuation of slavery 23

Structural engineering 26

1101-1200 The Twelfth Century 33

Population growth 35

The expansion of the monastic network 38

The intellectual renaissance 41

Medicine 47

The rule of law 51

1201-1300 The Thirteenth Century 57

Commerce 59

Education 65

Accountability 69

Friars 73

Travel 77

1301-1400 The Fourteenth Century 84

The Black Death 86

Projectile warfare 92

Nationalism 97

Vernacular languages 102

1401-1500 The Fifteenth Century 108

The age of discovery 110

Measuring time 116

Individualism 120

Realism and Renaissance naturalism 123

1501-1600 The Sixteenth Century 129

Printed books and literacy 132

The Reformation 139

Firearms 144

The decline of private violence 148

The foundation of European empires 154

1601-1700 The Seventeenth Century 160

The Scientific Revolution 164

The Medical Revolution 172

Settlement of the world 176

The social contract 180

Rise of the middle classes 182

1701-1800 The Eighteenth Century 188

Transport and communications 189

The Agricultural Revolution 195

Enlightenment liberalism 199

Economic theory 205

The Industrial Revolution 211

Political revolution 215

1801-1900 The Nineteenth Century 224

Population growth, and urbanisation 226

Transport 231

Communications 236

Public health and sanitation 240

Photography 245

Social reform 249

1901-2000 The Twentieth Century 261

Transport 263

War 271

Life expectancy 277

The media 279

Electrical and electronic appliances 282

The invention of the future 286

Conclusion: Which century saw the most change? 295

Stability and change 296

A scale of needs 299

Social change in relation to the scale of needs 302

The end of history? 319

The principal agent of change 325

Envoi: Why it matters 328

Appendix: Population estimates 347

Notes 355

Picture Credits 379

Index 381

Editorial Reviews

09/26/2016
Acclaimed British medievalist Mortimer (The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England) takes readers on a tour of the last thousand years as he attempts to glean which century of the last millennium saw the most change in Western civilization. He charts the progress and evolution of Western society while asking some truly challenging questions—how much influence did da Vinci truly have on history?—and making startling omissions (Napoleon, for instance, fails to rate even a mention). Given the expansive nature of his study, Mortimer often relies on statistics and data to illustrate a broad historical context; less often, he takes brief but engaging dips into the history of individuals and cultures. Though some may be unconvinced by Mortimer’s reliance on quantitative reasoning, it is hard to fault much of what he has selected as the most relevant trends and transformations of the West. But the most startling piece of analysis comes only after Mortimer has rendered his verdict. In the final chapter, Mortimer speculates about the future of Western society using the same schema that he applied to the past millennium. Though his predictions are grim, Mortimer’s intrinsic faith in human perseverance offers a glimmer of hope for the coming thousand years. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Original and fascinating. Mortimer is an entertaining guide on this superb time-travel journey of human innovations It is a planetary ride which Mortimer offers us in his tour of ten centuries. It is exhilarating to time-travel with him.

The Daily Mail (The Book of the Week)

Terrific. One of the most bracing aspects of Millennium is the breadth of factors it covers. Mortimer describes the past with a vivid directness. But he's equally compelling about the future. A thrillingly clear-eyed assessment, a taking-stock of what the previous millennium might teach us about the ways we face major changes. Here's hoping some of the 21st-century's leaders read it and do some pausing of their own.

Christian Science Monitor

An ambitious study of the last millennium.

The Evening Standard

I loved this book. It will enable you to understand your past, your place in it and that of your ancestors as never before. A modern classic.

The Mail on Sunday (Five Stars)

Provocative and enjoyable. Almost every page of this engaging book sets your mind racing.

Dominic Sandbrook - The Sunday Times (London)

★ Sept. 8, 2016
Most observers agree that the 20th century saw dazzling changes: the automobile, airplane, atom bomb, antibiotics, computers, space travel, the internet, and hundreds of other amazing advancements. What century can match that? Every one since 1000, responds veteran British social historian Mortimer, and he makes a convincing case.Following his format of The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England (2013), the author rewinds the clock for a fascinating, century-by-century Eurocentric argument that stuff more world-shaking than cellphones has been happening for a millennium. In much of the 11th century, the Holy Roman Emperor had the power to appoint and remove popes. By 1100, the papacy was an elected position, and Christendom dominated Europe. A powerful church supported powerful monarchs, whose armies finally drove off raiding Vikings, Magyars, and Mongols. Violence diminished, the population prospered, and cities expanded. By 1200, medieval Europe was enjoying a renaissance. Famine and plague devastated the continent after 1300, but an even bigger renaissance followed. The humanism movement, which glorified individual achievement, produced an explosion of art and science but also, for the first time, diaries and personal letters. By 1800, almost everyone had enough to eat, in itself a unique development. Mortimer’s chapters on the 19th and 20th centuries are lengthy and familiar but contain a few jolts. The author emphasizes that revolutions have a terrible record in promoting justice. Single-issue crusades—e.g., anti-slavery, women’s rights, civil rights, the eight-hour workday—do much better. Throughout, Mortimer focuses on changes that affected everyone. Thus, the revolution of printing didn’t fully catch on in 1450 with the invention of the printing press (early books were expensive and in Latin) but rather with the avalanche of cheap, vernacular Bibles a century later. A quirky but always delightful social history that will convince most readers that social revolutions have been happening for a long time.

Kirkus Review