The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050-1320

by Malcolm Barber

First published to wide critical acclaim in 1992, The Two Cities has become an essential text for students of medieval history. For the second edition, the author has thoroughly revised each chapter, bringing the material up to date and taking the historiography of the past decade into account. The Two Cities covers a colourful period from the schism between the eastern and western churches to the death of Dante. It encompasses key topics such Running through it all is the defining characteristic of the high Middle the delicate relationship between the spiritual and secular worlds, the two 'cities' of the title. This survey provides all the facts and background information that students need, and is defined into straightforward thematic chapters. It makes extensive use of primary sources, and makes new trends in research accessible to students. Its fresh approach gives students the most rounded, lively and integrated view of the high Middle Ages available.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History, Christianity, Religion, Academic

616 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 1991

About the author

Malcolm Barber is Emeritus Professor of of Medieval European History at the University of Reading.

Reviews

[Lydia Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a medieval history book of Europe covering the years between 1050 and 1320. I was excited to read this book because this is a real hole in my history knowledge, I know little bits of medieval history but really not very much at all.

I was quite excited to read this book, although it has been a bit of a disappointment! This book was really, really, really, really boring. It was the way that it was written. I think that it is a really interesting subject, but it’s trying to cover the whole of Western Europe, is a big ask, and I think it was just a bit too big an ask because the book ended up just running through lists of dates and names and places, and unless you know them all already you’re not going to be able to keep up with that, and it’s really boring as well.

I was a bit disappointed with the book but there were bits that did sound really interesting, but it was only dwelt on for three seconds! So, I think I’m definitely still interested in learning more about medieval history in these regions, it does still sound really interesting, this is just not the book for me to learn about it. But if people can give me a recommendation, I’m definitely happy to look into that.

This book was really boring – I think that’s an important point. It was an interesting subject but this book was over 500 pages and it was dry and boring the whole time. I’ve read some really good history books before where they really give you the mood of the time and although it’s not a story, you feel like you’re there – you didn’t get that with this book. It was just lists of names, dates and places with very little context and character of the people.

I didn’t like the layout of the book, Barber goes through different regions/areas such as the social and economic structure – that was actually one of the more interesting parts because although I am interested in kings and queens and royalty, I’m really most excited to hear about everyday people and everyday life, because I feel like you can relate more to that, also the rich people were generally a bit arseholian. Barber talks about the church, who were obviously really powerful at that time, and it’s really important to understand their role in the wider society. Then he starts going through regions, such as the Empire, which is Germanic; there’s Sicily and Italian states; there’s the French and English areas; the Crusader states; and then lastly he talks about the medieval world view, intellectual life, art and society.

One of the other reasons why I felt that this book didn’t work, is because it was going from area to area and then just running at high speed through a list of names and places that you have no background on, you just don’t know what it’s talking about! And then you’ll go to another region and think – that was definitely a name that I heard before, although there’s so many names being thrown at you, but you didn’t know who that was when it was talking about the other region because you hadn’t read this region yet. Or it will say – and then so and so met so and so, so that was the end of their reign, and I’m thinking – well why?! And it isn’t until you read another region that you realise that there was all this tumultuous stuff and they were connected because there was no context.

I think the only person this book would work for is if you already know the histories of each region quite well, and then you’re reading this book to see how they all link and tie together, because they did link and tie together quite a lot. It would be useful for that, but you’d have to know that already, and it would still be really boring to read the same 300 years repeated twelve times. As much as it’s harder to pull it all together and get all those context’s together and go through the time, I think it creates a much nicer and more interesting read.

It sounded like a very restricted society which I don’t like the sound of. The feudal system was obviously very controlling. The guild system sounded very controlling. There were laws controlling movement and occupation, as well as freedom people could have in that occupation, and their property, obviously as a woman – sheezus let’s not even get into that!

It was also interesting to learn about the papacy and how much power they had and their power within societies, and how they still wanted to keep their papal empire. It was really interesting to read about their power struggles with different monarchies, these monarchies were fighting amongst themselves for power, but they all have to have allegiance to the papacy to a certain extent or there’ll be some sort of uprising against them; this power play is very interesting.
I’ve got one quote, it is about the crusades, ‘The crusades grew out of the papal reform movement, for they provided the papacy with a means to put its ideas about the regeneration and purification of society into practice. The formation of an army of God had a double advantage in that it provided a means of enforcing papal will and at the same time diverted warlike activities of the most belligerent classes of society towards papal ends, instead of their preoccupation with internal feuding and attacks upon the clergy or clerical property. In its most dramatic form this entailed the recruitment of large armies to fight an external enemy which, it was claimed, had violently seized the Holy Places, the very sites of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, persecuted the Christian inhabitants, and erected idols in place of the worship of the true faith. However, the concept was more flexible than this. Gregory VII had already used papal armies against the enemies of the faith in Italy and had presented them as ‘soldiers of Christ’ and, although in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the capture and defence of Jerusalem remained central to the Christian vision of the crusade, the instrument which the papacy had forged could be used in other contexts, apparently with equal validity. Indeed, the original idea of a Christian ‘just war’, formulated by St Augustine in the pre-Islamic era, necessarily conceived that such force would be used against those who would disrupt Christian society such as heretics, schismatics or men of violence.’

It's really interesting to learn about the crusades and how they sprung up, and there’s a lot of talk in the book about the church reforms because there were often local important and powerful families who would try and get their people into the church and, so a lot of the church reforms were to try and counter that. It is really, really interesting and I would like to read a more interesting book about it. Barber also spoke about the lives of the monks and their search for reclusivity or a simpler way of life, but how that also easily became an easer way of life and they made a lot of money. The book didn’t talk a lot about women, but it did talk a little about women in the church and they really seemed to be looked down upon, the church didn’t even seem to want to include them at all, but they did begrudgingly because so many women were interested to be religious and close to God. It’s very interesting to see these ideas and ideals coming into actual human interactions and behaviours and set-ups and societies.

I think that’s about it, I wouldn’t recommend this book because it was so incredibly boring, but I’m definitely interested to learn more about this area, and if you do already know all the medieval history of the different regions of that time then it’s probably an alright book, you can probably put up with the lists of things because you know the context that they relate to.

[Taymaz Azimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that one would go back to again and again regardless of how well-versed one is in this or that aspect of life, religion, or politics in the High Middle Ages. The reason behind this is not just the impossibility of having knowledge about all such aspects, but instead that you'd miss how much you loved the scratching of surface that Barber does in this book with that smooth tone of his writing. It is a book that one always remembers with fondness.
There are bits that give you heavy eyelids from boredom of course and there are some seriously questionable claims. One thing that left me utterly shocked, for instance, was when he speaks of stealing relics of San Marco by Venetians as 'bringing those relics to Venice' without even mentioning that they were exactly stolen in a rather Indiana Jones manner. The book is also too shallow when it comes to the influence of Islamic thoughts in relation to philosophy and science which is odd since Malcolm Barber is a historian of Crusader States and should be quite knowledgeable about this matter. This latter issue sounds at points to be a conscious choice.
All in all, I like this book and I like going back to it especially to see the list of references for each chapter but I am not finding it an ultimate single-volume book on the High Middle Ages that everyone seeks (not that I know of any alternative to suggest).

[Ciaran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic introduction to the High Middle Ages. It was recommended as a must-read in my first year Ancient and Medieval History Undergrad, to be honest, I never really bothered at the time. However having read it now a few years on, I can see it would have been extremely helpful, honestly, I've still learnt a couple of things from it in my Postgrad years.

[Antara · Rating 1 out of 5]

this was just unnecessarily long and a very painful read

[Falsedan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inspired to read it via the bibliography section of the Ars Magica FAQ, ended up helped me choose a sensible starting province for playing Crusader Kings (Reggio, Roger de Hauteville).

Covering the same period repeatedly but from different perspectives make clear the complex interaction between the high middle ages kingdoms.

[Professor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay as a textbook supplemented by great lectures (how I first encountered it) but on its own it quickly becomes overwhelming. The 3 is for a textbook rating, on it's own I'd say a 2. Still, good brush up.

[Ellis Knox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Used this as a textbook once. Rather idiosyncratic, but a good alternative to the traditional approach.

[Kevin Mallen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book but I felt the structure was very convoluted, I couldn't really follow the history that was being told.

[Jeanie Wallenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a lot more info from this period than the previous period!