Idade Média: O Que Não nos Ensinaram

by Régine Pernoud, Mauricio Bret de Menezes (Translator)

As she examines the many misconceptions about the "Middle Ages", the renown French historian, Régine Pernoud, gives the reader a refreshingly original perspective on many subjects, both historical (from the Inquisition and witchcraft trials to a comparison of Gothic and Renaissance creative inspiration) as well as eminently modern (from law and the place of women in society to the importance of history and tradition). Here are fascinating insights, based on Pernoud's sound knowledge and extensive experience as an archivist at the French National Archives. The book will be provocative for the general readers as well as a helpful resource for teachers.

Scorned for centuries, although lauded by the Romantics, these thousand years of history have most often been concealed behind the dark clouds of ignorance: Why, didn't godiche (clumsy, oafish) come from gothique (Gothic)? Doesn't "fuedal" refer to the most hopeless obscurantism? Isn't "Medieval" applied to dust-covered, outmoded things?

Here the old varnish is stripped away and a thousand years of history finally emerge—the "Middle Ages" are dead, long live the Middle Ages!

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History, Catholic, France, Historical

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Régine Pernoud (17 June 1909 in Château-Chinon, Nièvre - 22 April 1998 in Paris) was a historian and medievalist. She received an award from the Académie française. She is known for writing extensively about Joan of Arc.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken]

This book is an example of counter-history.

She is a Christian but also a rigorous French historian (was, she died). She explodes all the anti-Christ Enlightenment myths against the medieval period. Basically, in the worst case scenario a serf living under those mean kings (actually, he never felt the king's influence, but the local lord) he had more freedom than we ever dreamed of today.

She doesn't explicitly mention it, but i have noticd that much of the Establishment's hostility to the medievals stems from religious presuppositions. They have a religious hatred of that time period. Thus, medieval historiography is a crusade...literally. The pen and book are now sanctified to God's cause.

She also notes that slavery began to die in the Christian period, became non-existent in the middle ages, and began to rise again with the decline of the Middle Ages and the rise of the humanist era.

[Yann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Le Secret des secrets. — Alain Chartier, Le Bréviaire des nobles.
Source: gallica.bnf.fr

Régine Pernoud(1909-1998) est historienne française du moyen-âge, pardon, de l'époque médiévale. Dans ce livre écrit il y a quarante ans, un pamphlet vigoureux et enflammé, elle défend l'honneur de la matière qu'elle a étudié toute sa vie contre les préjugés et l'ignorance du tout venant, eux-mêmes enracinés dans ces idées générales que chacun répète parce qu'il les a entendues ou apprises à l'école. Le responsable de cette désaffection et de cette ignorance? L'attrait tout à fait exagéré pour l'antiquité grecque et l'âge classique. Ce n'est pas tant qu'elle s'en prend directement aux anciens: chose assez difficile à faire sans se tirer une balle dans le pied. Elle s'en prend plutôt à leurs thuriféraires, et donc fatalement contempteurs du moyen-âge, au premier rang desquels ces satanés pédants de la renaissance, d'insupportables bonshommes à qui nous devons tous nos malheurs.

Ces hommes tristes et ennuyeux sont responsables de notre orthographe horriblement complexe, d'un goût tout à fait contraignant pour les canons classiques et complètement exclusif, de la modification du droit de propriété et des expropriations des paysans, de la montée en puissance de l'appareil d'état, du retour de l'esclavage, d'un droit légal étouffant les coutumes, de la tyrannie de l'alexandrin et des trois unités, d'un horrible recul du statut de la femme, d'une perversion de la religion qui devient plus fanatique et superstitieuse. Au contraire, au Moyen Age, c'était formidable: l'inquisition était utile et bienfaisante en permettant de juger les hérétiques plutôt que de les tuer directement, les serfs étaient très heureux d'être attachés à leur terre plutôt qu'à la merci du propriétaire, les nobles et les paysans vivaient en bonne intelligence, la religion maintenait tout en ordre, et la culture intellectuelle était au top: on inventait le chant, on construisait des cathédrales, on écrivait sur des supports indestructibles, on lisait les anciens sans l'aide de ces commentaires étrangers inutiles, on faisait de l'art sans imiter les autres mais en trouvant l'inspiration en nous-même; bref, on était heureux, et tout était fait pour durer.

J'aime bien les auteurs iconoclastes qui n'hésitent pas à bousculer les vaches sacrées. Régine est provocante à dessein, et ce portrait à charge est tout à fait calculé, comme l'est celle d'un athée qui fait un tableau outrageusement atroce et partial de la religion. Ces dissonances, c'est la seule solution pour guérir du psittacisme et du respect aveugle de l'autorité, pour forcer les hommes à examiner les choses par eux-mêmes plutôt qu'à s'en remettre aux opinions des autres. C'est l'amour sans concession de la vérité qui réclame ces petites ruses impertinentes. Je suis parfaitement d'accord avec elle quand elle dit que l'histoire est une science, et que la science n'a rien à faire ni de mode, ni de politique, ni de présupposés, ni de logique, ni d'autres raisons raisonnantes. Elle n'a affaire qu'à la vérité, la probité et à l'examen des sources. Le reste, c'est de la fiction, du journalisme et de la littérature.

Au final, je n'ai pas appris grand chose: je n'ai jamais considéré que le Moyen-Age était horrible et que d'un coup tout est devenu mieux, ni non plus l'inverse. L'homme n'est ni ange ni démon: il fait ce qu'il peut à toutes les époques, et les solutions du jour sont les problèmes du lendemain. Régine Pernoud est un peu la Jacqueline de Romilly du Moyen Age: elle clabaude tant et plus pour sa chapelle, c'est de bonne guerre. Ses remarques sur le Moyen-Age sont justes, par contre, quand elle parle de l'antiquité, elle a un peu tendance à tomber dans le même travers qu'elle reproche aux autres: la simplification. Mais bon, elle l'avoue à demi-mot, et son intention est suffisamment explicite pour qu'on lui pardonne. C'était une lecture plutôt amusante, et qui donne envie d'en savoir plus sur le moyen-âge, pardon, les différentes époques qui vont de l'antiquité à la renaissance.

[Rick Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Régine Pernoud worked for years in the French National Archives dealing with documents from the Medieval period, and dealing with the ignorance of the majority of the populace concerning the Middle Ages. She shares one anecdote wherein she was giving an interview on Joan of Arc, her area of expertise. The interviewer asked her how we can know so much about the trial of Joan of Arc, to which Pernoud replied that we have the court records. The interviewer was astonished. “But then, they wrote everything down?” She told him that they did. “Then in order to publish it there were people who recopied everything?” Again she responded in the affirmative. The interviewer’s mind was blown. “It’s hard to believe that those people could do things so carefully.”

The popular conception of the Middle Ages is not unlike the portrayal in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The truth, however, is quite different. Did you know, for example, that after the fall of the Roman Empire slavery decreased and disappeared during the Middle Ages? It was after the revival of Roman law in the Renaissance and during the Age of Exploration that chattel slavery came into being once again. Did you know that the Church fought against arranged marriages, that women could often vote, exercise ruling power, and ply a trade, and that medieval kings, with the possible exception of the Carolingians, cannot be considered true monarchs because they did not wield absolute power? Did you know that all crusade preachers were required to read the Koran before recruiting for the crusades or going to the Holy Land?

Another interesting thing is that we moderns condemn many institutions and practices of the Middle Ages without realizing that we are not so different ourselves. Pernoud relates a television interview she watched once in which a journalist was questioning a representative of the Red Cross about countries that refuse to allow the Red Cross to enter and investigate human rights. The reporter wondered if there was a way to force countries to allow the Red Cross to enter. Upon finding out that the Red Cross had no such power, the reporter went on to ask if civilized nations could not ban or set up sanctions and embargos against nations which would not allow Red Cross investigators to enter. Pernoud points out that in a few sentences the reporter had invented the Inquisition, Excommunication, and Interdict, three things for which the Middle Ages are excoriated.

In conclusion this is an excellent book for anyone interested in the Middle Ages, and especially good for Christians who have been poisoned by secular propaganda about the backwardness and intolerance of the age of Christendom.

[César · Rating 4 out of 5]

Régine Pernoud propone una refutación a varios mitos e inexactitudes relativas al periodo mal denominado Edad Media. Según su tesis, el Renacimiento -con su inmoderado rescate de lo clásico- da inicio a una intoxicación sobre el periodo medieval que llega a nuestros días. Todo aquello que salga del molde concebido en la Antigüedad Clásica queda marginado y cubierto de ignominia.

Arte, Mujer, Inquisición o Feudalismo son algunos de los temas que la autora clarifica y despoja de prejuicios alejados del rigor histórico. Carga, asimismo, contra la pérfida deriva de cierta enseñanza que incrusta en los maleables cerebros infantiles una serie de inciertas impresiones y burdos tópicos sobre la época; simplistas exposiciones de un periodo que abarca, en números redondos, mil años, presentado en numerosas ocasiones como un bloque monolítico donde el tiempo se detuvo y los cambios jamás se producían.

El tono es de fina ironía y la lectura avanza con asaz placer.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this book before you ever call anything "medieval" again.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's something lost in translastion. For instance:

"It was also in this period that musical language was worked out that would be used everywhere in the West up to our times" ???

It was a poor translation, and I was hoping the arguments would be more succinct.

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The section on Feudal Society and Custom, as well as Women, were both really good.


Art: Its functional character and technical utility, far from harming the artistic quality, are its most obligatory supports; for art cannot be "added" to a useful object: it is born with it; it is the very spirit that animates, or else it does not exist. (speaking of a Romanesque capital)

motifs: ...but when the most humble trait, the most modest touch of colour signified another reality, enlivening a useful surface by communicating to it some reflection of the beauty of the visible or invisible universe.


Feudal Society and Custom: (pp. 70 - 72)

Thus the right of private war was allowed, which was the right for the group to avenge an offence suffered by one of its members and to obtain reparation. Also, when we think of feudal society, we must acquire the habit of thinking of lineage, family, household, rather than of individual voices. Yet this same society rested on personal connections, of man to man; one committed oneself to a particular lord. If some incident occurred, it was necessary to renew the agreement that had been made. In this way, the history of feudal times unfolded, made up of games of alliances formed and then dissolved; here it was a vassal who swore homage to his lord, but who then proved guilty of infidelity; there it was another who, having sworn homage to the father, refused to do as much for the son... Feudal wars, which in no war resembled modern wars, drew their origins from that extremely complex fabric of personal agreements and community traditions that constituted the society of the that time.

Accusing Finger - pp. 136 - 138

Women: Gradually, after the Middle Ages, everything that conferred upon women any autonomy, any independence, any instruction, was taken away from them.

Convents gradually ceased to be those centers of study that they had been previously once the University (which only allowed men) tried to concentrate all sources of teaching and knowledge, and once the convents ceased that, they also ceased, rather rapidly, being centers of prayer.

A woman salt merchant, hairdresser, miller, widow of a farmer, a chatelaine, a woman Crusader, etc.

Women voted like men in urban assemblies or those of rural parishes. In notarial acts, it is very common to see a married woman act by herself, in opening, for example, a shop or trade, and she did so without being obliged to produce her husband's authorization. Finally, the tax rolls, when they have been preserved for us, as is the case of Paris at the end of the 13th century, show a host of women plying trades: school mistress, doctor, apothecary, plasterer, dryer, copyist, miniaturist, binder, and so on.

It was only at the end of the 16th century, with the growing influence of the Roman (Imperial law) 1593 that explicitly excluded women from all state function. It was not long before women were being restricted in what has been, in all times, her privileged domain: the care of the home and education of the children - at least up until the moment when that too would be taken away by law with the Napoleonic Code. She could no longer own property and would be forced to play an inferior role in her own household.

Or, too, I might have mentioned the right of sanctuary, which perhaps would be useful to revive on a large scale in an era when the spirit of public and private vengeance has been reborn.

Boys could vote, learn a trade and be on their own by age 12, girls by 14.

Rediscover the importance of tradition, which is a living given, susceptible like all life to growth, to acquisition, to enrichment from new contributions.



“By familiarizing oneself with other eras, civilizations, one acquires the habit of distrusting criteria of one’s own time; they will evolve as others have evolved. It is the occasion for personally revisiting one’s own thought mechanism, one’s own motives for action or reflection with those of others. “, pp. 112 - 113)



The High Middle Ages

Frank Period: 410 (Goths seize Rome) or 476 (deposition of the last Emperor) to the middle of Eighth century

Imperial Period: Unified Europe from mid 8th century to mid 10th century

Feudal Age: mid 10th century to the end of the 13th century


The true Middle Ages, a period of transition between feudalism and monarchy, with the violent social, economic and artistic changes that such a political change caused, is the 14th - 15th centuries. The true age of wars, famine and epidemics.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, though not what I was expecting. It was less a historical account of the Middle Ages and more a response to how modern culture views history. While Pernoud was writing from the perspective of France in the 1970s I don’t think things have changed too much or even that historical stereotypes are limited to the Middle Ages (though it still remains a rather looked down upon period, particularly in the United States). It is easy to see that Pernoud truly loves Medieval Europe, and the book documents her struggle to get people to look beyond the stereotype of squalor and backwardness to see the vibrant, interesting thousand years of European history. Even today I think that most think only of plagues and witch burnings when they think of the Middle Ages, which as Pernoud points out did not even occur until nearly the end of the period and continued into the Renaissance. Also, Pernoud argues that the Renaissance was actually a step back in terms of women’s rights which shows that, unlike what is often believed, history is not a progressive line of things always getting better.

While I didn’t agree with all of her arguments, I think she argued very well for the view that no period of history is better than another; we are not smarter than the people of Medieval Europe, nor are we less smart.

[Dallas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a serious study on the brilliance of the middle ages in Western Europe, which was great to get from a gallic apologist. I'm more used to an eastern approach at this point. The ending essay, which was a defense of teaching history. I loved the denial that man is a blank slate; Pernoud says that each of us comes with ancestry, heritage, and a story, and if we know nothing of these things, we are as impaired and limited as amnesiacs.

[Felipe Oquendo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vou fazer uma resenha à francesa desse pequeno grande livro.

1 - A Autora

Régine Pernoud foi importante historiadora e escritora francesa, famosa por suas obras de desmistificação da Idade Média, período histórico de sua predileção. Já havia lido o seu "Luzes Sobre a Idade Média", bastante famoso e de conteúdo semelhante ao deste. Embora se trate aqui e ali de livros de divulgação, são eruditíssimos. Sempre vale a pena ler Régine Pernoud e tomar contato com sua inteligência e sensibilidade.

2 - O Título

O título da obra em francês é "Pour en finir avec le Moyen Âge", que é tanto irônico quanto literal.

Irônico, pois a autora não quer dar cabo da Idade Média, senão que ressalta suas boas qualidades e, mais justamente ainda, sua complexidade inabarcável pelo tosco nome "Idade das Trevas". Aliás, essa ironia fina continua nos títulos dos capítulos (com exceção dos dois últimos), que, refletindo o preconceito generalizado, dizem exatamente o oposto de seu conteúdo.

Por outro lado, é literal, pois ela dá cabo da Idade Média falsa e simplificada que povoa os livros didáticos, as séries televisivas, os filmes e os romances, como também propõe abandonar o termo "Idade Média", por ser demasiado genérico para se referir a um período de 1.000 anos como se fora um bloco monolítico. Com efeito, no capítulo "História, Ideias e Fantasias", propõe a divisão desse período milenar em 4 etapas, ficando "Idade Média" apenas para designar o período entre 1300 e 1500, aproximadamente.

Seja como for, a escolha de título para a edição brasileira não conseguiu apreender essa complexidade, o que foi uma pena. Antes tivessem seguido os americanos e colocado toda a ênfase no irônico - com efeito, nomearam a obra de "Those Terrible Middle Ages!".

3 - Estrutura da obra

A obra se subdivide em capítulos com títulos irônicos. Por exemplo, "Deformados e Desajeitados", para falar da maravilhosa arte gótica e das catedrais, e "A mulher sem alma", para tratar da dignidade especial da mulher no período que vai até a redescoberta do Direito Romano.

Sempre leve e precisa, Pernoud nos guia pelos aspectos desses mil anos mal conhecidos através da oposição a chavões e lugares comuns do jornalismo ou dos livros didáticos acerca da "Idade Média", polemizando e criticando sem dó nem piedade, na medida do necessário.

Nesse livro aprendi muita coisa nova. Por exemplo, que até a restauração do Direito Romano na Europa Ocidental, as rainhas eram coroadas junto com os reis e sucediam a estes, além de governarem em sua ausência. Aprendi também que a divisão da Bíblia em versículos e capítulos, que usamos até hoje e que foi adotada até mesmo pelos judeus, é invenção de um arcebispo de Canterbury, do século XIV. Fiquei abismado ao saber que o rei São Luis IX designou um pequeno exército de fiscais que tinham por objetivo assuntar com o povo e, discretamente, obter informações sobre como os representantes do Rei estavam, de fato, administrando cada localidade, exemplo infelizmente sem frutos na história.

Nos dois últimos capítulos, a autora traz ensaios sobre como encarar a Idade Média e sobre o papel da História não só na educação como na formação do homem e da cidadania.

Um pequeno grande livro imperdível.

4 - A Edição da Linotipo Digital

Se a edição que li tivesse se ocupado de uma revisão tão criteriosa como foi a escolha de material, papel e ilustrações, teríamos aqui uma edição definitiva do livro. Não me entendam mal: a tradução é boa (não é excepcional: contém diversos galicismos e, por vezes, frases afirmativas que evidentemente eram negativas e vice-versa), as notas pelo prof. Ricardo Costa são melhores ainda, mesmo que por vezes poluam um pouco o texto (precisa mesmo explicar quem foi Freud ou Chesterton?), e a diagramação é perfeita.

Porém, há notas repetidas, cortadas pelo meio ou sem numeração ou indicação de quem as fez, elipses inexplicáveis no texto, cochilos e gralhas decorrentes da função "autocompletar" do editor de texto, os já citados "nãos" que desapareceram invertendo o sentido das frases, as duplas negativas em excesso, violentando o caráter do vernáculo, enfim, pequenos descuidos às vezes não tão pequenos que são uma mancha no que poderia ser A edição de "Pour en finir avec le Moyen Âge", em português.

Espero que, com o dinheiro levantado com essa obra, os nobres editores tenham tempo de rever essas falhas criteriosamente e providenciar uma segunda edição corrigida e, agora sim, definitiva.

[Gary Ludlam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book, though a little dry at times. This book turns many misconceptions about the middle ages on their head, and traces those misconceptions to the relatively self-congratulatory period of the enlightenment, putting both periods of history into new perspective. It shows us how not everything was worse in the middle ages, how some things deteriorated in the enlightenment, and even how the term "middle ages" is not really appropriate at all.
My only criticism comes in the areas of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the whole Galileo controversy. She hinted at the greater truths surrounding these events but then seemed to propogate some of the anti-Catholic sentiments about them that have been in place for so long. Those were small sections of the book, however.

[Mike Hacker]

For all those fallicies that exist on those so called "Dark times," this is an excellent read to discover the Truth unvieled behind the the ages of the hieght within the Church-whether its the beauty of architecture or the ontological concept of being lived by the Christian.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not at all what I expected, but a very good book all the same for anyone who reads much in the way of history books. The author goes through various presumptions made by historians, and describes the methods and evidence that she's found that undermine some of those assumptions.

[Cristina Montes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit hard to read, but for those who keep at it, it's an eye-opener about the Middle Ages and our modern prejudices against that historical period. The book debunks the notion that the Middle Ages were a backward age.

[Kara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its an interesting rant from a history teacher who has put up with one too many sophomores parroting back Hollywood "facts," but its also 40 years old and doesn't offer much besides giving this poor woman a chance to vent.

[Ivana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Útla knižka od renomovanej francúzskej historičky, kde sa dotýka niekoľkých oblastí stredovekého života a v stručnosti opisuje a demaskuje zaužívané myšlienky o stredoveku. Zaujímavý úvod do problematiky pre každého. Mojou najobľúbenejšou je kapitola o ženách (ako inak :-)).

[Dvdlynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of some of the misconceptions surrounding the middle ages. It suffers somewhat from assuming a fair amount of knowledge of Art History and the History of France which can make some sections (esp. the first chapter) a difficult read for the general audience it's aimed at (at least an early 21st century American audience that includes your truly :-)

[Charise D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Those Terrible Middle Ages Regine Pernoud sets out to correct many common misconceptions about the roughly thousand-year period known as "The Middle Ages". The main thrust of her argument is this: That "The Middle Ages" have been wilfully misinterpreted up to our current day as a result of the prejudices against it formed in the Renaissance and carried on through what she terms "classical times" (ie the sixteenth century up to the nineteenth century), and a cultural bias in favor of classical thought and Roman Law. It may sound dry, but I found it fascinating. She was able, in a relatively short space and in an engaging way, to call into question the fundamental assumptions average people, and even many historians, have about medieval times: that it was an era of pestilence, plague, war, strife, oppression and superstition.

There are so many revealing passages, so many examples of how we've been hoodwinked about the nature of medieval times that it's difficult to pick just one quote to illustrate what I mean, but here's one I especially liked:

"In the memory of the people of my generation, the medieval serf evoked, through an association of ideas, a long concert of frogs. According to our school textbooks, in fact, he spent most of his time beating ponds in order to quiet the frogs who prevented the lord from sleeping. That so absurd a fable could find an audience--and it was mentioned in texts from the beginning of the seventeenth century on--proves a certain revenge of the imaginary over the rational: no one even sought to know which might have made more noise, the frog--even allowing that one could have made it be quiet--or the man occupied with beating the pond."

She goes on to relate the tale of Constant Le Roux, a serf whose life was not entirely untypical; he enlarged his property and his standing, provided an inheritance for his nephew and a marriage for his niece, and ended his life by entering a monastery, something even great lords of the day were known to have done. There's lots more, about women, about education, about the Inquisition, and so on. Though the book was written in the '70s, it's sad to say the situation has only slightly improved (though it has, especially in the field of women's studies I think).

This book really ought to be required reading for just about everyone, if only because it permits the reader to understand the importance of accuracy in historical studies and education, and allows a window into a much-maligned era of Western history. For me personally, it's just a relief that someone has verified in print what I'd always suspected: that the "Middle Ages", covering much too long a timespan to be lumped under that one term, were no more terrible than any other time.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

A view of the myths about the medieval era, as believed in France. In 1977. Nevertheless has some things I recognize.

Though she's an academic, it's very informally written. Indeed, when comparing access to medieval French literature in France vs. in the United State, she take a moment to enthuse about the Dewey Decimal System, which let her find a book all by herself. (She comments that it was just beginning to be introduced into France.)

It goes through the myths by topic. The visual arts and literature, for instance, in both of which the entire medieval era is treated as failure because, in the grip of the classical thought, they deemed that everyone must really have been trying to slavishly imitate the ancients, and therefore they must have been total failures. (What the Renaissance really brought France, apparently, was the delusion that departing from the classical models was always a decline.) The social structure and how it worked -- with the observation that slavery was revived, not continuous. Women, where the view that medievals thought that women didn't have soul is treated with all the contempt it deserves. The legal system. What can be discovered, and what needs to be introduced into the study of history.

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, Regine Pernoud writes, is a historical animal.

"Nothing is more natural; history is life; beyond any definitions or abstractions, man is expresssed by his history..."

Pernoud delivers a slicing blow that cuts through centuries of lies, libel, and literary liberty that have created an unjust, slanderous image in our cultural counsicousness. Without writing entire volumes, she is able to concisely and effectively undermine this fallacious image that reduces an entire millennium of human endeavour to a monolith of regressive barbarism.

"In neglecting the formation of a historcal sense, by forgetting that history is the memory of peoples, instruction forms amnesiacs."

She also ends with an excellent defense for the need of proper, again, proper study of history. That is, not dates and names, but cultivating a dynamic, living historical sense which, building on the experience of those before us, can grapple with the human condition we continue to face.

"The Cartesian tabula rasa is perhaps the greatest philosophical lie of all time... Everything that consitutes a life is given, transmitted. One never starts from zero."

[Bich Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book if you are a history connoisseur like myself. I had to read this book for an assignment but found it very enjoyable and of course worthy of mentioning on goodreads. the author, Regine Pernoud, a famous 20th century French archivist and historian did a fantastic job "debunking" or arguing misconceptions historians overlooked or rather under looked regarding the middle ages. Her arguments embody the notion of feudalism, serfdom, gothic structures, women's rights, power of churches, along with many more. She offers many credible sources to back up her claims and does so in a way that doesn't make you feel like you are reading yet another "boring" history book. The vernacular may be a bit intimidating but you must keep in mind that this book was translated from French. Nonetheless, Those Terrible Middle Ages is worth the read and you'll be surprised at how much you learn from reading a book that's less than 200 pages!

[Martin Moleski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primarily focused on French culture and education. There are lots of allusions that I could not understand. The basic thesis, though perhaps somewhat dated, seems sound: we tend to lump 1000 years of human history together as "the Middle Ages" so that we can pass over them with a few ill-chosen stereotypes, as if nothing important was said, thought, or done in that long period of history.

I am thinking of using the life of the Middle Ages (or some period during the Middle Ages) as a counterpoint to modern culture in my courses. This book was very helpful for me in raising my consciousness of the developments that took place in this great age of history, but it won't do as a textbook for my students. It is too abstract and does not delve into the telling details of a life lived closer to the land. I've enjoyed fiction about the era--Kristin Lavransdatter and The Pillars of the Earth trilogies--but they are too long for a subsection of one of my courses.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but dated, insofar as a lot of reevaluation of the "middle ages" has been done since this was first written. The author is an academic and despite the title and brevity of this book, it is really not aimed at an amateur audience, so there are a lot of casual referneces to French historians of the early 20th century that I did not know.
But I did find a few very interesting insights here. First, much of the cruelest and most "barbaric" things about the medieval period come from the rediscovery of Roman laws: in particular, the reduction of serfs to near slavery, the brutal treatment of criminals and heretics, and the decreased status of women. During the High Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the rediscovery of classical sources had a very dark side that we tend to gloss over.

[Moniza Borges · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro essencial pra quebrar o lugar comum que mais ouvimos nas pobres aulas de história e pela internet afora que sinônimo de Idade Média é "Idade das trevas" ou "época de obscurantismo". Capítulos que ficaram na minha lembrança são os que mostram como as artes e a filosofia floresceram nessa época e o que relembra as grandes mulheres medievais.

[Maria Yohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book that puts many of the myths that were originally propagated by Enlightenment snobs to rest. The next time I hear someone use the phrase "that's so medieval," I may just be tempted to throw this book at them.

[Victoria Haf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great because it really changes the ideas you have in terms of Medieval Age, I now love this part of history in so many levels

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un livre passionnant, comme tous les écrits de Régine Pernoud.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

2nd half >>>> the first

[Irene Lázaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por fin un libro que rompe con todos los estereotipos de la Edad Media, que comparten a veces los propios medievalistas. Debería ser una lectura obligada en el colegio. En este ensayo, Pernoud rebate algunas concepciones que tenemos del periodo medieval con argumentos sólidos que te hacen repensar lo que sabes de la época. La autora se atreve a bajar de su pedestal al mundo clásico y al Renacimiento, algo que ningún historiador se atreve a hacer. Llega a ofender incluso al traductor, que se ve obligado a suavizar la visión de la autora en las notas a pie de página. No suscribo todo lo que piensa Pernoud, y a veces es un poco rancia, pero me encanta que le eche un par.

[Calleti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro que rompe con todos los mitos y estereotipos que se le atribuyen a la Edad Media. Ya es hora de que una autora critique los periodos más alabados por la historia que son el clasicismo y el renacimiento. Pone en valor la edad media con argumentos sólidos, utilizando archivos. Hay algunas cosas en las que no estoy de acuerdo con la autora, pero es una lectura rápida y amena. Recomendadisimo si te gusta la historia y quieres leer algo diferente.