The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople

The History of the World #3

by Susan Wise Bauer

A lively and fascinating narrative history about the birth of the modern world.

Beginning in the heady days just after the First Crusade, this volume—the third in the series that began with The History of the Ancient World and The History of the Medieval World—chronicles the contradictions of a world in transition.Popes continue to preach crusade, but the hope of a Christian empire comes to a bloody end at the walls of Constantinople. Aristotelian logic and Greek rationality blossom while the Inquisition gathers strength. As kings and emperors continue to insist on their divine rights, ordinary people all over the world seize the lingayats of India, the Jacquerie of France, the Red Turbans of China, and the peasants of England.

New threats appear, as the Ottomans emerge from a tiny Turkish village and the Mongols ride out of the East to set the world on fire. New currencies are forged, new weapons invented, and world-changing catastrophes alter the the Little Ice Age and the Great Famine kill millions; the Black Death, millions more. In the chaos of these epoch-making events, our own world begins to take shape.

Impressively researched and brilliantly told, The History of the Renaissance World offers not just the names, dates, and facts but the memorable characters who illuminate the years between 1100 and 1453—years that marked a sea change in mankind’s perception of the world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History, Audiobook, Renaissance, Historical, Medieval

817 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 5, 2013

About the author

Susan Wise Bauer is an American author, English instructor of writing and American literature at The College of William and Mary, and founder of Well-Trained Mind Press (formerly Peace Hill Press).

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Third installment in the series, covering the Crusades, Black Plague, and more events than you can possibly remember
History is truly a rich pageant with an overwhelming number of details, and Susan Bauer does an admirable job in winnowing down five centuries of turbulent European and Asian history into a consistent narrative that covers so many regions, kingdoms, kings, sultans, knights, merchants, popes, priests, and commoners that the mind does reel from all the detail. However, she counteracts this by always focusing on individual of importance and their personalities, so it's not dry.

If anything, it amusing and horrifying at turns how venal, incompetent, bloodthirsty, and petty some leaders can be in their striving for power and dominance over their rivals, and how quick they are to execute rival family members, advisors, and sometimes even whole populaces put to the sword to assuage their paranoia, only to be assassinated a year later, with the whole thing repeatedly with each successor. The history of the world seems to be a bloody, ruthless, and messy business, and yet so many great cultural and intellectual accomplishments developed during this period amid the mayhem. Human civilization always swing between greatness and ignominy, with everything in between. Who needs fiction when true events are so dramatic?

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this volume the weakest of the three. Based on this volume, I can’t tell you the meaning of the ‘Renaissance’, what the author defines as the period from 1100 – 1452 or what most others would call the ‘Early Modern Age’. Oh, it has meaning, but when the story is told as this author does strictly chronologically with an eye to the events in themselves as an end in themselves sometimes the meaning, the reason and the modern day significance gets lost in the shuffle.

The story is told by this author in this volume as if an alien spectator from another planet was compiling a set of diverse worldwide events from on high and dwelling mostly on the movement of local fiefdoms as they rubbed up against each other and reporting that to their overlords on a distant planet on a 25 to 50 solar year basis. I enjoyed the story telling of Genghis Khan and his hoards, a segue from England and the Magna Carta all told in a serial fashion, and all the various events related such as a very detailed 50 year history of Sri Lanka from 1150 to 1200 and even the African nation of Chad which is one of my first times understanding its importance of itself, but never quite understanding exactly how Chad or Sri Lanka intersected with the world as a totality, or how all the events related as if by an alien observer gave meaning to the ‘renaissance’ period with itself or to today or as a continuation of history from itself.

Europe and its dysfunctional family of rulers, cousins and petty family squabbles never fail to amaze, but I still challenge a reader of this book and using this book alone to tell me the meaning of the ‘Renaissance’. I think it has meaning for today, I think all history has meaning. I think those who fail to study history are doomed to repeat it and are liable to end up with narcissistic ruler who appeals to our hate in order to control us by creating an alternative set of facts which transcend the real world of historical facts. The claim of ‘fake news’ can only work on those who are ignorant of the truth and the meaning inherent from our common history. Hungary and Poland today are returning to their xenophobic totalitarian core and both states are mentioned in detail within this book and to understand what is happening today sometimes the context of history enlightens, but even in this book’s telling the contextual meaning and significance was obscured by the chronological event telling.

Were the scholastics even mentioned in this book? I guess some were (I don’t remember which, but if they were they were only briefly mentioned). The period of time covered in this book is when ‘love of wisdom’ goes from grammar as the root of understanding to logic as the gateway and then to rhetoric for the rediscovery of the old Latin masters (thank you, Petrarch and Florence) as role models (or in other words, from the pre-scholastics, to scholastics to what most people refer to as the Renaissance). None of the depth or complexity of thought that emerges from this time period gets any detailed treatment within this book.

The Early Modern Age has meaning beyond the events themselves observed and transcribed by an alien from another planet. (The author used the word ‘Renaissance’ in her title, it’s her book and she can title it anyway she pleases but I don’t think she should have if she was writing a story about the Renaissance in the sense that most people think about the Renaissance. She probably should have called it ‘Early Modern Age’, but even then she still owes the reader the reason why the period of time has meaning for today and the time period itself).

[Son Tung · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third volume after Ancient and Medival History. To my surprise, Susan starts from the discovery of Aristotle around 11th century in Spain (the translation of ancient knowledge of Greek from Arabic to Latin). She manages to cover further other geohraphical area not mentioned in second volume: Khmer Empire, Champa kingdom, Dai Viet (Viet Nam), Mali Empire... I particularly enjoy the section on The Khan Empire, Yuan Dynasty and New Dehli Sultane.

[Rebecca Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I didn't enjoy this book as much as the previous one (The History of the Medieval World), it's mostly because I am so much more familiar with the material. Where I knew next to nothing about medieval history, I was happy not to dive deep; here, the broad strokes left me feeling a little unsatisfied. Still, it included some of my very favorite people and events: the 1-2-3 personality punch of Henry 2, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and Thomas Becket; Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai, Xanadu, and the Golden Horde; the competing popes (what a-holes, haha!); and Jeanne d'Arc. I was surprised how truly romantic, intellectually equitable, and non-icky I found the relationship between Abelard and Heloise.

I learned all about the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Cathars, and that the African slave trade was invented by the Vatican in collusion with the Portuguese. The Catholic Church definitely has....an established pattern of fuckery.

This book says it's about the Renaissance, which many would quibble with. It ends in 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire—well before Shakespeare, Michelangelo, and Columbus (whom I despise with every fiber). Bauer's point is that what we think of as the Renaissance was only possible because it came after several hundred years of intellectual and political development, beginning with the rediscovery of Aristotle's philosophical works.

[David Withun · Rating 3 out of 5]

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[Sud666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly wonderful history book. Superbly written, engaging, full of information- yet never dense and boring. S.W. Bauer has written a well-researched survey of the Renaissance world starting in 1100 with the end of the First Crusade and ending in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople. In between she covers the major events of this time period in short concise chapters devoted to a single subject or country. She covers the entire world, from Aztecs and the African Continent to the more well known events of Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East. Each chapter comes with a useful timeline and multiple maps. Covering a broad range of subjects from military campaigns to theological disputes this book is a great starting point for anyone interested in this time period. It also can serve as a jumping off point for anyone wishing to do more research about any specific event or historical person referenced in this book. My hats off to her eminently readable writing style. I will most assuredly find more of her books to read. A MUST read for anyone interested in World History and highly recommended for people who just enjoy a good book that will inform and entertain. A no-holds barred 5/5 stars.

[Chrissie]

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*The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome TBR
*The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade TBR
*The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople TBR

[Daniel Lișinschi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this one is the weakest in the series. Maybe that's due to the not so gripping time period. The writing style is still fascinating and easy to follow by.

However some downsides are noticeable. First of all, despite placing the events chronologically correct, the date mistakes are irritating. For example the Abbasid Caliphate starting date is wrong.
The title is also quite confusing. Susan has barely touched Renaissance. She doesn't speak about the social or cultural part during this period, focusing only on the territorial changes.

Overall, a good book that might work for those who have a weak understanding of the described period, with no background knowledge. For the rest, maybe an indepth alternative is better, as Susan doesn't provide an analysis but simple narrative.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely an event-driven rather than analytical, or even cultural history.

The lector is competent and all that, but this might have read better on the page than through the earbud. Because the author tries to encompass events in North Africa, Central and South America, India, and east Asia as well as Europe it felt like a patchwork---all dashing from here to there in an apparently random fashion while dropping hundreds of names that you're going to forget immediately. Even so, this ends up pretty Eurocentric.

Two themes emerged for me: 1) The corruption through systematic subversion and overuse of the ideal of the "Crusade" and 2) How many, many rulers and their relatives died young of dysentery (she's even more dedicated than Will Durant to describing symptoms and specifying cause of death). With plague coming in later on for occasional change of pace, the poop seems to flow in every other paragraph.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as amazing as her prior two. Susan Wise Bauer does it again. The History of the Ancient World got me into history around the age of ten, and this third book rekindled my love once again.

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled on this book in my public library's electronic offerings and was happy I did. It is a genuinely enjoyable history of the Renaissance, a period which isn't my strongest suit. Bauer sets her beginning and end dates for the Renaissance (a notoriously difficult task) unusually wise, from the 12th century renaissance to the fall of Constantinople, but covers her material in an engaging and entertaining way, while maintaining a good sense of a broad range of material from Europe, the steppes of Mongolia to China and Japan.

The main structure are vignettes which tell the story of this period in an approximately chronological manner. This means that material from different cultures intermingle which can be tricky to keep straight. It does give a good sense of the material and avoids the trap of writing on the Renaissance; too narrow focus on Western Europe. This volume maintains a breadth which is impressive and, somehow, a coherence that is unexpected, given the breadth of reading this must have entailed. Bauer ties in her episodes very well, which takes work. An example is in a chapter n which Bauer is explaining how in the late 1340s, the English king had finally regained the initiative in his war against the French. She ends the chapter with "And then the world ended" as a lead into her chapter on the Black Death. It was an effective introduction and caught my attention.

This history is definitely worth reading. There is a tendency to go a little 'Great Man' theory on the narrative, but it isn't exclusive. What is more important is that this is a truly engaging history, replete with interesting anecdotes and character sketches which is truly well written.

[Dennis Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople by Susan Wise Bauer is a very thorough survey of high and late middle ages. The book considers itself to be a history of the Renaissance, but that's really only if you squint, and you talk about the earlier renaissances. I would recommend sampling this book. While it does move chronologically, there's no need to read much more than a chapter or two at a time, and there's no problem with jumping ahead. Bauer is an effective writer, and capably provides a mixture of political, military, and religious history one slice of history at a time. I liked the increased focus and the relatively narrow window of history done here, and I look forward to reading what she produces when she touches the actual Renaissance. I'm also looking forward to a more global history, as the book still leans a bit heavy toward Europe. That's not going to be possible 1453-1700s/1800s in the next volume.

Also, while some consider this book to be falsely advertised, that really only works if you never read the full title. The book never pretended to go further than 1453 and the fall of Constantinople.

90/100

[Michael Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was slightly less enjoyable for me than the first two in the series. I think the main issue is that she had more geographical area to cover in this book due to recorded significant historical events happening in more places in the world in this time period than that of the previous two books.

It left her jumping all around the globe even more so than she had in the previous two books, making the book feel disjointed.

Overall though, I've enjoyed this series for what it is, historical highlights throughout the ages. She writes well and knows her stuff from what I can tell. She accurately depicts every historical event that I already have studied independently at least.

I've used this series more to see what periods of history I'd be interested in learning more about, and I think it's a great resource in that respect!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susan Wise Bauer's writing style is great for reading history. I've really enjoyed her other works, especially the first two in this series. The History of the Renaissance World was equally well written, but I did find myself wishing it was arranged differently. Her books cover the entire world, which is very interesting. At times, every chapter in this book seemed to jump from one area of the world to another. I found myself wishing she would stick with one area for a few chapters and then move to another part of the world. A few chapters in sequence in Europe and then a few in East Asia.

[Courtney Umlauf]

Back on the To-Read list. This will have to be one I dip into on occasion, a chapter here and there as an introduction to a subject. But I don't think I want to listen to this entire book from start to finish. Each chapter works as a summary introduction to a particular part of history. I'm really only familiar with English history, so when the author spends a lot of time (which she does) off in China or someplace that I'm completely unfamiliar with, it's difficult for me to follow along as it's all new information. Not that I'm put off by that format. I actually quite appreciate the broad scope, but it's just a bit too broad for me to really take it all in in one read.

[Nemezida · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to dive into history nonfiction, and the first book I picked up was The History of the Renaissance World by American historian Susan Wise Bauer.

It’s the third instalment of the author’s trilogy about the history of the world. It describes events from the 12th century until 1453, which marks the fall of Constantinople. The book has an appropriate subtitle: “From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople”.

The author alternates chapters on the history of European countries, the Middle East, India, East and Southeast Asia, and some African ‘states’. It even includes some sections on the history of Indians in America. The book is rich in its scope.

I’m amazed that Bauer has created a fascinating historical reading from such a mosaic. For me, the most informative chapters were the ‘Asian’ ones, as my knowledge in this area had been somewhat vague. I want to read something more detailed about the history of Japan now.

The European history of that period is already well known to me and traditionally enthralling. The volume describes the Crusades in quite some detail (for a book of this format).

Generally, this book creates for the reader a unified, integral system of the world in the 12th to the 15th centuries. It’s not very detailed, but it’s pretty easy to read. So it gets a positive note from me.

[David Rae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The concept of this book is a challenge in itself. How can you succinctly tell the history of the entire world over the course of a few hundred years and fit all those pieces into a single volume? Well Bauer manages it by linking not only the regions, but also the major players/families in those regions through a staggered timeline.

She'll talk about an area and a period (say the middle east during the first crusade). She'll highlight the major events of that period (key players, deaths, battles, drawing borders, court intrigue etc) and then She'll move on to another area (like western Europe) and repeat the process. Eventually She'll return to the same area as time passes and show how all the events around the world have influenced the changes in these regions.

Through this process she manages to illustrate the medieval period in astonishing detail throughout the entire world, without getting too drawn in to any one particular place or time.

My one caveat I had with it, was that it came across as very academic, with a faithful retelling of the historical events and a lack of storytelling flair. Yet, it couldn't explore the high level of detail, because she literally had to cover the entire earth.

[Jeremiah Lorrig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve generally liked her work, but in this case I got the book because I wanted to know about the Renaissance, but this book, literally doesn’t even get there. It is a book about the late Middle Ages and ends before the Renaissance even starts. Quite disappointing.

[Michael Spinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

People reviewing this as better than history of the medieval world is crazy to me. The timeline was also super confusing to me. The renaissance barely even happened during the period outlined in the book. We don’t even get to talk about moorish refugees or Byzantine ones who kick started the renaissance. Learning about the origin of assassins was interesting. This is more aptly named “history of the late medieval”. More granular in not a great way than the first book but I understand the difficulty as our sources get better. Overall still good or I would not have finished it.

[Jim]

At some point I will offer a synopsis to lead in to a detailed review - this is not that "point" - SEE THE COMMENTS BELOW FOR ONGOING NOTES

[Streator Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly easy to read, outline of WORLD history for the time period covered in the book.

[Jordan Korol · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this series by Susan Bauer. My main interest is the Plantagenet period of English history so I was a bit disappointed in the brevity of this part in the book, though I recognize that the immense task of retelling hundreds of years of history means that some details will be lost. Overall however, I loved the apportionment of the story's focus between Japan, China, India, Western Europe, and even Central America. I was pleasantly surprised at the inclusion of the Templars and their trials. The author uses wit and humour to bring life to the world leaders and their tales of triumph and defeat. Would absolutely recommend this to any history lover.

[Patrick Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bauer's History of the Ancient World is eye-opening and informative, powered by a light and charming tone. Her medieval world sequel lacks some of the charm of the first book, but contains some fascinating historical anecdotes. This book is the least inspiring of the three.

Part of the problem is that very little of interest or historical relevance (at least in Europe) happens during this time. The Mongol Empire and the birth of the Yuan dynasty is covered here, but gets little attention here (read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford). The same goes for the appearance of Joan of Arc (Jeanne D'Arc as Bauer presents her), who only appears for about five pages.

That is, of course, the problem when you try to cover 500 years in 800 pages. But as with the other books, this devolves at times into a laundry list of kings who seemed impatient to war with each other when they weren't fighting off rivals trying to usurp their thrones.

I'm glad I read all three, and in a row, because it was nice to catch up again on world history writ large after so many years separated from high school and college. But if she's planning on another one that picks up from this one (it ends in the mid 1400's), I think I'll pass.

[Kevin Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much and I'm bummed that I'll have to wait for her to finish the next volume!

The period of time covered by this book was probably the period I knew least about. Before beginning the series, I had some knowledge of the ancient empires, and some knowledge of the last 500 years, but getting to watch how the one epoch morphed slowly into the other was fascinating.

UPDATE: If you want to know what is next from Bauer, this blog post from March 2012 is the best information I can find:

http://www.susanwisebauer.com/blog/ne...

[Stephen Angliss · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the third and final installment in the author’s “History of the World.”

One may feel duped when they realize that very little of this 700 page work actually concerns the Renaissance, and by her own admission, doesn’t even reach the Italian Renaissance of Da Vinci and Michelangelo.

Instead readers get a continuation of her second work on the medieval world. As already pointed out in reviews for that work, Bauer’s history contains little narrative and heavily relies on royal genealogies and political lineages. Practically no mention is given to how the world looked or felt as the pages drift from one dead king to the other. Overall, an extensive but uninspiring read.

[مي صالح زيتون · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had trouble finishing this book. There are too many events to be cramped up in a single book. The bias of the author was really concerning as well. When islamic conquests showed mercy and did not kill anybody, she doesnt even mention it. But when it is christian mercy, she writes a paragraph about it. This made me not trust anything she says. I used the book as a timeline of events, but i definitely do not trust her biased opinion about any of the events

The two stars are for the short chapters, the timelines, and maps. But definitely not the narrative

[Ilinca · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's right to state from the outset that this is not a history of the Renaissance, but of the world during what is known as the Renaissance. I got a bit bored jumping across continents for things that were not necessarily relevant to what I thought was the main topic, but she did make it clear, so go to China I did :D
I admit I had been hoping for a more cultural history of the causes of the Renaissance, but that's just me. For a bare-bones world history of the period, this is it, I guess.

[Joel Everett · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, a third in a series by Susan Bauer, might be better titled "The Prologue to the Renaissance," but it is still an excellent general world history covering the start of the 12 century up until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. I sincerely hope that Susan Bauer will eventually continue her general history series down to the present day.

[Ramona Wray]

A little dry and too almanac-y for my taste, but a comprehensive examination of the era in question. The Asian chapters were especially engrossing.

[Ben Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work is the capstone of Bauer’s 3 volume history of the world up to the end of the renaissance. Bauer’s work was extremely engaging in volume 1, where she tracked the change in human self conception through the development of tribe, city, civilization, and empire. In the medieval volume, she shows how the idea of crusade is mutated for personal gain. In this volume, she continues following that idea, until the idea of crusade/jihad finally wears itself out against the walls of Constantinople, ending only in the pointless slaughter of innocents and gratuitous cruelty of the victors, abandoning all pretense of religious importance.

Overall, this series suffers from the sheer scope of the project. While a history of the world felt manageable in volume one, volume two showed a few of the weaknesses of such a goal, wandering into “chronicle” territory and becoming less engaging. Volume 3 commits this sin even more egregiously, which led to me often tuning out while reading/listening, hoping to get to the next part that would hopefully be more engaging.

On the one hand, Bauer possesses an immense gift for simplification— conveying these events in such a concise way is the mark of a truly knowledgeable researcher. On the other, I found myself coasting from country to country, person to person, event to event, without ever feeling truly attached to many. The few times that Bauer does spend an extended amount of time on an individual are the highlights of this book— Richard the Lionheart, Joan of Arc, and Henry V all present compelling mini narratives that leave you wanting more. Then, however, the book returns to some other drudgery 3000 miles away, and your eyes start to glaze over again.

Despite this, this book is an admirable effort and a worthy achievement for any author. Bauer has successfully created an epitome that could stand alongside any of our extant ancient authors whom we rely on so much, and that is an incredible achievement. It is an effective tool to increase the reader’s knowledge and begin contextualizinf the different events of world history onto a single mental timeline. For the casual reader who wants to be entertained, however, it is better to choose one specific subject and stick to it.