Europe in the High Middle Ages

Penguin History of Europe #3

by William Chester Jordan

The author of the award-winning The Great Famine provides coverage of such events as the crusades, the building of Chartres Cathedral, the revision of the Catholic church's power, the creation of key works of literature, and the disastrous events of the fourteenth century. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, European History, Medieval History, Medieval, Audiobook, World History

389 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

William Chester Jordan is an American medievalist who serves as the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University; he is a recipient of the Haskins Medal for his work concerning the Great Famine of 1315–1317. He is also a former Director of the Program in Medieval Studies at Princeton. Jordan has studied and published on the Crusades, English constitutional history, gender, economics, Judaism, and, most recently, church-state relations in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

Reviews

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised by the low ratings this book has been given- it's nothing jaw-dropping, but, on the other hand, it's short, well written and doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It's a selective survey of European history in the later middle ages. It's not trying to convince you that micro-history is more important than the history of high politics; it's not trying to sell you on the idea that the center or the periphery is more important; it's not out to convert you to ethical ideals you already hold. It just tells you, more or less, what you need to know to start reading more deeply about the time period.

That said, it has some flaws: Jordan pays very little attention to the Byzantines or Russia, while giving lots of space to the Crusader kingdoms. He seems to have chosen 'the Jews' as his marginalized people of choice (compare Chris Wickham's preference for 'the women' in his 'Inheritance of Rome'), which is more about us than about the middle ages, and doesn't seem to do much other than signpost the fact that he's not an imperialist or whatever. Luckily he's happy to do the other things that 'imperialists' do: discuss high culture, discuss political change, actually say things. And he leavens it a bit with social history, economic history and generally acknowledging that ideas don't rise in a vacuum.

Also, the cover of the hard-back edition is gorgeous. Why they didn't keep it for the paperback is more mysterious than anything that happened between 900 and 1350.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 3, lets hope it’s narrative follows the same format as the opening book in the series..... at least its a short book.... fingers crossed.....going in!

After a short introduction to the general layout of the book & the world the book has inherited C1000AD we’re swiftly away, no long intro’s here! The structure of the book seems sound enough with the narrative going via century (we start in the 11th) through to the mid 14th Circa the Black Death Plague.

Hopefully we’ll learn more about the peoples this time as we did in the first book?

We have maps of regions of Europe to start each chapter giving major towns/cities/peoples & at the back is a history/Index of all the Kings of Europe of the different peoples for the period covered. Also at the back is a chapter with “Further reading” which names around 4-5 books for each chapter/section of the book, so if you wanted to read more about the Magyars History, a pointer or two is given which is where I’ll be heading at some point.

The 11th Century chapter sees us introduced to the major powers in turn via the regions of Europe, namely the Mediterranean, Northern Europe & British Isles, Francia/France & finally Central Europe. The narrative is quite brief in truth but it’s easier to follow than the previous book & most importantly we get to learn about the peoples of the time be they Spanish, Venetian or Anglo-Saxon which is why I signed up for this series in the first place. The author does reach back before the year AD1000 (official start of the book) & shows us the origins of some of the races highlighted albeit very briefly. It doesn’t get bogged down with endless names/dates, merely highlights major events in the named region by the named peoples & how their social/economic, political & religious society was made up along with their rivalries/alliances with (in the case of Italy) other states/countries/cities. You get to learn about Sicily for example & appreciate it’s pivotal position in the 11th century as the Arabs, The pope, Byzantines & eventually it’s conquerors the Normans vie to control it along with it’s Muslim, catholic, orthodox & Jewish population.

There are many examples to give (i’ve given jus a flavour) but trust me when I say by reading this you will much better understand how the jigsaw of Europe came together from around the year AD1000 onwards. If you already know about such things then I doubt you’ll find anything new in this book as it covers the basics only. For me, I knew what I was told about the Scandinavians of the 11th Century but for sure I knew little of the early formation of the Italian states & the central Mediterranean so it was a good read overall as I learnt more than I already knew & more importantly it started to put it all into order / timelines which I was a little loose about in some regions.

The one thing that stands out in the opening chapters is that many of the races/peoples mentioned in this book evolved long before the year AD1000 but were NOT covered in the prior book which irks me even more now about the second book in the series. It has though given me an appetite to learn more about individual peoples/nations that started to emerge from around C750 AD through to the later medieval period.

The 12th Century begins with religion, the Pope, the Holy Roman Empire & explains the emergence/expansion of the church via various holy orders/monasteries which leads onto the 1st Crusade & illustrates how religion became a greater part of medieval man’s life/culture as opposed to the prior centuries. It’s quite a development & not the gradual erosion into/control over people’s lives I thought the church had been post the fall of the Roman Empire. Christendom vs Pagans ive covered through various peoples but not in this context where Christendom becomes more powerful & all encompassing in daily lives, fervour would be a good description. This is the part of Christendom (or any religion) that I despise.... its control (power) over people.

The year 1096 seems particularly barbaric where the early “crusades” many not even reaching Constantinople let alone the “holy land” set about the European Jews & massacred them en masse en route to the East, many of these “bands” were even set upon & massacred themselves by the Hungarians & Bohemians as they provoked violence on the Jews within those countries borders, the worst atrocities were carried out in the Rhineland where whole Jewish communities were butchered. It’s a part of history i’d never heard about before or at least not in this aspect/detail.

Education through religious institutions dominates this century as centres of learning pop-up & spread across Europe which go on to become universities. Books start to be readily copied through mostly monasteries.... again the religious impact (read bias).

This era is more about the spread of learning & social economics & we forego certain regions, namely Scandinavia, Eastern Europe & the Byzantium Empire all of which are not covered as the author concentrates mainly on Western Europe & the crusades. Which I think is remiss as the evolvement of certain nations/races/regions in Europe, are not covered. I say Europe, as in the modern era version as we know it.

The 13th Century starts with more social history as urbanisation is fully in effect in the West. We learn of the Pope, Innocent III who initiated the rise/consolidation of the power/influence of the Papacy over its near neighbours namely Sicily & the Holy Roman Empire first, before its sphere spread to the rest of Western Europe. The 4th crusade aims to retake Jerusalem but it’s high jacked by the Venetians who take Constantinople much to the Pope’s dismay but he puts it down simply to “God’s will”.

Its a bit of a whirlwind tour through the history of the period but as ive said before (on occasion!) its joining the dots for me & i’m happy with the succinct delivery. The major powers in Western Europe (France & England) feature in this chapter having whole sections to themselves as always........ finally though the central (Poland, Hungary & Bohemia) & Northern (Scandinavia & Baltic states) regions appear on our horizon but it feels like they have been jettisoned into our historical narrative & all that has gone on before is presumed for the reader...... at least though we finally get a picture of what’s happening/developing in Eastern Europe (which doesn’t form part of the Byzantium Empire) although sadly we get very little, bar a mention, of what the Mongols are doing in the Eastern regions of Europe. Its (Sections on Central & Northern Europe) all very brief for me & in no-way as thorough, as the chapters concerning the church or the western powers that have dominated the book to date.

The 14th century sees us start with more Christendom swiftly followed by Famine & the Plague as the Black Death reaches Europe & lays waste to the population. It really is a game changing series of events on the populous of Europe & those that survive through the events certainly have a different life to those that went before, it’s reasoned that the middle ages end with these events, which seems a reasonable assertion, in fact western Europe doesn’t reach pre-plague population levels until the 1600’s. The other detail that popped out at me was the victimisation of witches/Jews in this period ie non-Christians who started to be persecuted openly as opposed to being tolerated before.

At journeys end I think I could have handled more history & felt for certain regions/eras it was a little sparse compared to others, the impact of Christendom being one I could have done less with but I guess to the victor goes the writing of history..... I also have the feeling that the book jus petered out come the end, although perhaps on reflection that period itself (of The Black Death) brought about a big impact on life In Europe in the time.

Overall I’d have to give it a three, middle of the road for sure

Next up would have been renaissance Europe C 1350-1550 BUT it hasn’t been written yet!!

[Ozymandias · Rating 4 out of 5]

What The Series Should Be
This book is much closer to what I expected to find in Penguin’s History of Europe. The first book was breezy but unfocused and tried to cover too much while the second one was a masterpiece of scholarship that’s probably quite advanced for the general reader. This book manages to be a focused and accessible introduction to the 11th-14th centuries that covers a wide variety of topics in an accessible and engaging style. It doesn’t go into particularly great depth but what it covers it covers well with full awareness of modern scholarship. It is, in short, a great guide for the beginner who’s just reading about the period for the first time. The flip side of course is that it’s less useful for those who are already familiar with the period. Everything is about compromise, but I think that this particular compromise in this particular case is the right one for this series.

The tone and style of this book is about as radically different from the last one as possible. Rather than a dry scholarly tome, this book tells a story of medieval life and culture. The opening chapters provide a good example. We begin with a geographic overview of Europe grouped by regions and bringing us up to speed on 11th century events. After a general overview of population and farming trends, we turn to southern Europe before heading north to northern and then western Europe and central Europe. The sense here is that of listening to a storyteller. We hear the key events of each region narrated along with good geographical observations as we drift through the countries. It all seems very much of a whole, even though I know many of the incongruities and regional variations. Transitions are smooth: we end the summary of southern Europe with the conquering bands of Normans, even though this is jumping slightly ahead, which then allows us to leap northwards to the original Norman homeland in Scandinavia. The Normans also serve as our transition into French society. He didn’t have to do this. But it really helps make the book feel welcoming. If I was entirely new to medieval studies I would find nothing in here to throw me off.

The book is keenly interested in time and its progression. There is no topic that gets viewed from beginning to end in a single chapter. Beyond that, it is organized by geography. The book is divided up into four parts: the 11th century and beyond, the 12th century, the 13th century, and a shorter one on the 14th century. In each part we do a rough circuit of Europe, stopping at all the major kingdoms and getting a potted narrative of major events in that century. The conclusion is generally that, contrary to popular impressions, there were pretty serious changes over that time. Despite the twin organizers of region and time, the book has plenty of discussion of other topics as well. Political systems is one of the main topics. We also get frequent discussions of religious structures, education and philosophy, art, poetry, agriculture, etc.

One area we could probably have used more discussion of was feudalism. That term’s been under fire lately by historians convinced it should be rejected. Feudalism is a pretty general term that describes a decentralized social and political structure with a rigid hierarchy based around hereditary landownership in exchange for services. The argument goes that this never really existed except in the mind of people looking back. Medieval society was never fully run by mutual obligations based on land tenure. There was always money involved, even with the most basic of vassal obligations – military service. Mercenaries were active long before the 14th century. Since a fully feudal society never really existed the term is useless as a means of explaining it. I personally hate this rigid and extreme conclusion. We might as well throw out the term democracy since there has never yet been a government where masses of people don’t vote, whether due to apathy, age, gender, wealth, or citizenship. But for the purposes of this book it means discussion of this topic is like walking through a minefield. So we simply don’t get a discussion at all. Part of this, I think, is due to the series’ general requirement that there should be no discussion of historiography. It would be hard to explain feudalism in theory without describing the alternative frameworks. But I still think more could have been done.

The worst that can be said about this book is that it’s somewhat superficial. We never dive particularly deep into the culture and society of the Middle Ages. Some of the theology and philosophy can be confusing, but it’s still kept simple enough that laymen can understand it. Honestly, I think the balance between depth and simplicity is pretty good. We’re not presented with the fairytalelike world of chivalry and romance you sometimes find in older accounts and nor is it the desaturated blood-soaked mess you sometimes find in modern accounts (*cough* William Manchester *cough*). This captures something of the true feel of the period. It’s obvious that we’re just skimming the surface of deeper waters.

The Middle Ages naturally serve as the subject for a great many books. The problem is that general books covering all of the High Middle Ages are harder to find than you might think. Bartlett’s The Making of Europe is a happy exception. They tend to either cover the entire millennium between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance or else focus much more narrowly on a specific region that is sometimes treated as “universal”. For the former there are a number of options. A somewhat older one is Norman Cantor’s The Civilization of the Middle Ages. If you liked the last book and want more, Wickham wrote a book called Medieval Europe that covers the whole period. A popular and approachable account can be had in the provocative and exciting The Bright Ages, by Matthew Gabriele and David Perry – an exaggeration but a useful corrective to the William Manchester “World Lit Only By Fire” types. For those desiring the latter approach, Singman wrote a book called The Middle Ages: Everyday Life in Medieval Europe, based on Medieval England. The Gies wrote similar books called Daily Life in Medieval Times based mainly on the conditions in France. If nothing else it’s worth it for the pictures. Ashbridge wrote the best book I’ve read on The Crusades. There are other books out there, but that’s enough to get started with.

[Corey Woodcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Penguins History of Europe, Volume #3….Europe in the High Middle Ages by William Chester Jordan. This was an excellent read and markedly different than the second volume by Chris Wickham. Whereas Volume 2 was a dense, intricate examination of the Early Middle Ages, the “Dark Ages”, packed absolutely to the brim with information, names, dates, etc., this one feels much more like a general overview of the next period and covers about 1000-(approx)1350 CE and was much different tonally. Both books/approaches to this subject matter have their pros and cons—Book 2 was extremely dense and academic feeling. The writing was a little dry, but the information contained in that book was mind blowing. However, something like that is bound to be less accessible to your average history fan. Thankfully it was on a subject I am extremely interested in, so I didn’t have an issue getting through it; had it been something I wasn’t so interested in though? I may not have made it. This book had a different fee. It was half the length (on a period we have far more primary source material from), and didn’t go anywhere nearly as in-depth as the previous book. However this is what made it an easier and at times, more enjoyable read for me.

This book starts with the state of Christendom in the year 1000, and proceeds chronologically through the Middle Ages from there, bouncing around Europe and the near East with rather short and interesting chapters. It kind of uses religion, mostly Christendom but also Islam when appropriate, to help paint a picture of the times—it’s kind of the lens we see it all through. I think this was mostly successful, and definitely appropriate considering what an important role religion played for the people that lived through this time. There was a whole chapter dedicated to the First Crusade which was one of the most in-depth sections of the book, and also one of the most interesting (I am now reading Dan Jones’s Crusaders). I also really enjoyed the chapter of the Normans, Scandinavians, and Northern Europeans.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a good starting point to begin looking into the High Middle Ages. This is, after all, the period (as well as the Late Middle Ages which are covered here a bit as well) that many of us in the West think of when we think of medieval times: knights, castles, princes and kings, and jousting. There is a fantastic section here detailing the origins of the joust; from the deadly jousts of war to entertain kings, to the more toned down and sporting varieties that we are familiar with through countless re-enactments across various countries. There is a chapter towards the end called Famine and Plague that discusses the horrific famine of the early 14th Century, which eventually cleared up only to give way to the Black Death and the Hundred Years’ War. As I’ve said a few times now, this is only an overview, but it does give you a great base to look more into specific periods or events you find interesting. For instance, I found the chapter on the First Crusade very interesting (as well as disturbing) and went out and bought Dan Jones’s book Crusaders, and started reading it almost immediately. If the previously mentioned chapter, Famine and Plague - about the absolutely catastrophic events of the 14th Century - were to get your wheels turning, you could pick one of the countless books written on just this period (and if I may, here’s an unsolicited recommendation: Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century is an absolutely fantastic, even brilliant, book on this period). So anyway, if you’re new to the Middle Ages, and want a good overview of this period, this is a great place to start—it’s accessible, interesting, and quite readable. However if you are someone who has been reading about the Middle Ages for years, there’s probably very little, if any, new info here for you (which was not the case for the previous book).

Oddly enough, the next book in this series on the Renaissance still isn’t out yet and seems to be indefinitely delayed. This is a bummer for me as I’d like to keep going and don’t want to skip over the Renaissance, so I guess I’m going to wait for now.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molto interessante.
Un periodo vasto e complesso raccontato in tono per nulla noioso ma non superficiale.
Vera sorpresa per me tutto quanto riguarda l'Europa centrale di cui non avevo mai saputo nulla.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine general overview of the political, religions, intellectual and social happenings of Europe in middle ages. The author does a particularly good job illustrating the changes in worldview during this period as it was influenced by the tumultuous events of the period.

[Yair Zumaeta Acero · Rating 4 out of 5]

La tercera estación en este viaje a través de la historia de Europa implica un desembarco en la Alta Edad Media de la mano del director del programa de estudios medievales de la universidad de Princeton, William Chester Jordan y su libro “Europe in the High Middle Ages”, tercer libro de la serie “The Penguin History of Europe” de la editorial Penguin. Un trabajo que abarca la siempre apasionante y evocadora historia medieval europea entre el año 1.000 hasta mediados del siglo XIV.

Para quien arribe a estas tierras medievales habiendo leído las dos entregas anteriores, reconocerá en este libro el estilo general de la serie: Un relato centrado menos en cronologías detalladas, batallas, dinastías, nombres y eventos; y más en una visión global de la historia, los pesos y contrapesos políticos y el desarrollo económico y cultural del continente.

Para el caso de la historia general del viejo continente durante la Alta Edad Media, la columna vertebral del relato será la consolidación, crecimiento, dominio y declive de la iglesia católica, la figura papal y su relación con las monarquías y naciones emergentes de Europa, protagonistas que dejan de verse como las víctimas de las invasiones bárbaras y foráneas propias de la Temprana Edad Media, para convertirse en reinos poderosos y autónomos capaces inclusive de extender su órbita de dominio por fuera del continente a través de las Cruzadas.

Un recorrido donde el autor de manera clara y concisa nos introduce en lo mejor y lo peor de este periodo. Desde el crecimiento de las ciudades, el surgimiento de la universidad y el arte gótico (con un subcapítulo especializado en el desarrollo de la arquitectura gótica y el arte religioso de la época acompañado de grandiosas fotografías), el resurgimiento del estudio de la literatura y el pensamiento clásico y helenístico, el amanecer de los romances, las gestas de caballería y las “Chanson”, los juramentos de honor y los caballeros cristianos de reluciente armadura; el protagonismo de majestuosos reyes como Ricardo Corazón de León, Federico Barbarroja, Federico II Hohenstaufen, Guillermo el Conquistador, Esteban I de Hungría, Felipe II y Luis IX de Francia; la formación de las naciones europeas y la consolidación de los centros comerciales y de poder como no se había visto desde la caída del Imperio Romano; todo ese esplendor opacado también por el vasallaje y el feudalismo depredador como modelos sociales y económicos inamovibles, la pobreza, las interminables y recurrentes guerras, las persecuciones religiosas y la infinita codicia sanguinaria disfrazada de guerra santa a través de la Cruzadas, desgracias que alcanzarían su cenit a principios del Siglo XIV con la Gran Hambruna de 1315 y la aparición de la todopoderosa y devastadora Peste Negra que barrió un tercio de la población europea y que servirá como colofón del relato.

Un libro que claramente no pretende ser una obra magistral sobre la Alta Edad Media ni abordar con detalle los eventos que dieron forma a este período de la humanidad. En mi humilde opinión, cumple claramente con el objetivo del autor (y de la serie de “The Penguin History of Europe” ) que es dar una visión general de un lapso de tiempo en la historia de Europa y ser un punto de partida universal para que el lector profundice sobre los temas de mayor interés (en este caso, con un capítulo completo dedicado a las lecturas adicionales sugeridas por el autor). Eso sí, los detalles sobre las Cruzadas -salvo la primera y la tercera- son bastante esporádicos y poco profundos y ni hablar de la “Guerra de los Cien Años”, cuya mención no abarca más de dos páginas (afortunadamente para las Cruzadas contamos con el espectacular libro de de Christopher Tyerman titulado Las guerras de Dios: Una nueva historia de las Cruzadas; y para la Guerra de los Cien Años siempre será más que perfecto consultar A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century de Barbara W. Tuchman o esa ciclópea obra de 4 volúmenes de Jonathan Sumption). Por lo demás, será un libro ideal para reposar en esta tercera parada y proseguir el viaje hacia el “Renacimiento” (cuya obra hasta donde tengo entendido, estará a cargo del profesor de Princeton Anthony Grafton, la cual aún no ha sido editada, existiendo un bache temporal hasta las Reformas Protestantes del Siglo XVI que se abordan en el quinto libro de la serie)

[Brian Willis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of the period, organized quite accessibly. Each section covers a century, and each chapter covers either a majorly developing country (England, France), region (Central Europe with subheadings on Italy, Germany, etc) or sociopolitical development (literacy, art, the Church). The Crusades also get their own chapter - fair enough. While not the most scintillating prose, it conveys the ideas lucidly and comprehensively enough given the aim of the series and the size of the book.

The book felt like review for me (for the most part) but that explains my own 3 star rating. 4 stars very possible for those needing an insightful overview of the evolution of Medieval Europe (this is the period in which most countries, particularly in Western Europe began to take the shapes and forms politically and socially, begin to look and feel familiar, although still very feudal obviously). Not a bad book for an overview.

[Ratratrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

E' stato un piacere leggere questo libro, che in non troppe pagine racconta al storia europea fra il 1000 e il 1350. la vita, i regni, le crociate, l'economia...il tutto rivisitato con commenti e giudizi, cenni ad altre possibili interpretazioni storiografiche.. rivisto tanto, imparato cose nuove.. e si conclude con un'invenzione foriera di guai: la polvere da sparo.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent survey. Primarily chronological, secondarily geographical, occasionally thematic.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a general survey of political, social, and cultural history of Europe (mostly Western Europe) from around 1050 AD up through the early 14th century with the Black Death and the beginnings of the Hundred Years Wars between England and France. While the book is not as detailed as some other books, the author is exceptional at telling the story about how the “High Middle Ages” was a dynamic period in between the end of classical and medieval times and the beginnings of modernity, the formation of modern nation states, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and other modern aspects of European history and society.

The book is easy to read and excels at tying together the different strands of history that are often separated in more traditional academic accounts. A few key individuals - kings, popes, scholars, and the like - are highlighted as examples, but not too many and never to the degree that it detracts from the general narrative.

This is a fine book to prepare for a trip, if one is interested in these times and events.

[Beauregard Bottomley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book knocked it out of the ball park for me. The author lets the reader know why what he is saying is important as it is happening and how the events or lines of thought led to other events or thoughts ultimately making us who we are today.

I found this book slightly better than the book I read last month on the same topic Europe in the High Middle Ages by Mundy and I loved that book.

I love this period of history and this book clearly stood out for its concise method of presenting that history while never falling into the trap of telling esoteric arcana not germane to the real story. It’s hard to find good books on this period of history as a whole but this book and the above-mentioned book are two pearls in the sea of mire.

[Praveen Kishore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crisp, Insightful, Accessible and Interesting.
A great book on Europe during high middle ages, covering the period AD 1000-1350.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do like it when an author tries to take a materialist approach to history. It’s meant to be boring when someone explains how improved horse harnesses contributed to more effective ways to exploit animal labour leading to population growth, but I’m always feral and screaming with excitement to find an analysis that doesn’t rely on the personalities of ‘Great Men’.

However, this kind of approach has to be applied consistently for it to be taken seriously, and even then it can open an historian up to analyses that don’t wholly make sense by exposing biases, or failing to account for the ineffable human tendency to do weird stuff just because.

This book does offer some good material analysis at times and occasionally backs it up with some reasonable (understandably broad) evidence mostly by referencing other works in the field. That missing spark, though, that missing sense of ‘why people do what they do’ outside of economic or subsistence motivations, is evident throughout. The absolute worst offenders include ‘The crusades had no dynamic of their own…. the decision to mount a crusade depended on the enthusiasm that could be turned from investing resources at home into investing them in war and settlement abroad’. Words fail me at how dumb THAT is. Possibly the worst, however, comes very early on - you know it’s bad when I have to put down a book and take deep calming breaths on page 11. The author is giving a broad sense of the spreading populations of Europe in the high Middle Ages. One of the things they say is that slaves were often induced to take part in the clearing of forests for founding new villages, but in their analysis - focused only on the material - slavery ‘could in practice and by custom confer benefits on slaves’ and therefore ‘only the hope of economic advancement sweetened with the promise of… freedom, would induce them to take a risk’.

I have to wildly disagree with this point, and use it to stress how insufficient a purely material analysis of history can be. Historians often like to present pre-1600s, non-chattel-slavery as kind of okay. They’ll talk about how slaves were part of the family, how, for example, Romans often freed all slaves in their wills and freed slaves were so common that, especially in the Imperial era, they could rise high in politics without detriment. Here in this book, the author is explicitly stating that in stable Middle Ages communities, a slave would have had such ‘benefits’ to their current station that they would only seek to change this if given the potential to improve their personal economic status and therefore likely, possibly, gain freedom in the process. I think this is an absolute failure to represent humanity in an accurate way, and also diminishes an aspect of humanity we should never seek to diminish. Slavery is the complete destruction of dignity and autonomy at the hands of one human to another. We can claim that it never reached ‘truly’ monstrous levels until this was married to religious and racial supremacist ideology with chattel slavery, but to do this - to claim slaves before this point were benefiting in some ways from their role and needed economic encouragement to seek freedom - is to deny the fundamental horror of being owned. This is where material analysis can be so, so weak. Sure, we need to think about larger societal forces affecting history, but we can’t forget that humans were not and are not numbers on a page. They have personal identities and desires, and the depersonalisation and exploitation inherent in being legal property cannot be overstated.

It’s clear that slavery - and the desire to underplay its importance, or write it out of the historical record as much as is convenient - is a topic the author struggles with. It’s mostly ignored completely but where it is mentioned, as in both chapters 1 and 3, amongst entirely material analyses of everything else, the author asserts that due to ‘Christian teaching’, people thought better of it and heavily reduced their use of slaves. In chapter 1, the author explicitly says that slavery was ‘already dying out’ partially because ‘churchmen… encouraged lord’s manumission of slaves as a virtuous act, and over time lords responded to the teaching by freeing their slaves’. Babes! IF we merely want to stick to the material, we know full well lords and kings did not decide to take on the church’s teaching unless it benefited them, and when it didn’t? They simply pretended not to hear that bit! If the virtuous lessons from God were enough to change society, all the lords would have given away all their possessions and turnéd théé othèr chéék. It’s a far more sensible conclusion to see the enfeoffment, widespread conversion, and centralisation of power in Europe at the time made the opportunities to enslave captives rarer and more expensive, while feudal peasantry did the same work anyway without the need for so much (expensive) force. There’s no point invoking the social shift away from the slavery systems of the late antique period as some kind of humble submission to church ideals. Pull the other one.

The other weak element of the author’s approach is that it’s presented in a kind of textbook style where the author is telling the reader what’s what on a firmly delineated topic, rather than exploring together. That, of course, is the easiest way to get through 350 years of history in 328 pages! But it also stretches the author a little too far, meaning the quality of the chapters varies markedly - presumably based on the specific interests and specialities of the author - and the episodic way each chapter is presented means important context isn’t picked up on if it’s to come up later in its own essay.

In the better chapters, which mostly seem to be those covering Northern Europe, the author successfully crams in a lot of the pertinent information in a rich way that shows there’s greater detail to delve into for the interested novice reader. Even in some of these chapters, though, there are problems. They often fail to stick to the material analysis leaned on heavily in the introductory chapters, clinging to the ‘Great Men’ as a cheap framing device to help canter through decades of history in a couple of paragraphs. The episodic organisation of topics also doesn’t help. Chapter 6 covering the Investiture Controversy, for example, is broadly accurate and covers the key bits but for those with an existing knowledge base it’s very, very strange to have the discussion about the papacy/explosion of monasticism in this era without mentioning the word ‘crusade’ until the last 4 paragraphs. This absence of context seems to have been done on purpose to allow the crusades get their own specific moment in the next chapter instead. Breaking up the information in this way may make it easier for someone who wants to dip in and out of this book looking for specific essays, but it creates a discordant sense in some chapters where there are simply giant holes in the narrative so as to forcibly set boundaries between topics that are, in fact, entwined.

In the weaker chapters, the author’s lack of specific knowledge manifests in grand statements of truth with very little evidence backing them up. For example, in chapter 2 the author tries to provide an overview of the state of Mediterranean Europe around 1000 AD and in many places the clumsy, inconsistent narrative becomes painful. Maybe the worst clanger is the statement ‘Islam itself afforded the greatest single cultural challenge’ in that it was tempting for Christians and Jews to convert. As a quick and speedy side note, the author most often uses latinised forms of Islamic figures’ names which is stinky! But to return to the extreme claim specifically, even if we decide to generously read the author’s intent as merely to use ‘challenge’ as ‘alternate to the traditional’, the evidence doesn’t bear this out! During the high Middle Ages is exactly when various ‘heresies’ exploded in popularity. The author makes reference to this much later in chapter 13 - another example of valuable context being split from the narrative - even mentioning Catholic violence and the formation of reactionary organisations within the church such as the Dominicans. But, incorrectly, the author claims Languedoc Catharism as a kind of aberration, a rare and markedly different heresy. Actually, Bogomilism - a kind of anti-church-hierarchy form of Christianity that came directly out of Eastern Orthodox communities in Central Europe - made the leap to parts of Italy and Southern France in particular during the Middle Ages and this was almost certainly the root of Catharism, though the ideas involved cropped up in various sects even stretching back to Manichaeans in the 3rd century. In the author’s treatment, Waldensians are held up as an example of a relatively accepted heterodox christianity as a comparison to the Cathars, as though the Waldensians weren’t eventually declared heretics, excommunicated, and hunted down as well. The author says ‘Only those Waldensians who stubbornly rejected priestly authority… came to be regarded as heretics.’ That’s quite misleading… a Waldensian who agreed to the Catholic system was converting to Catholicism. So it was convert or be a heretic… convert or burn. Hardly an example of where the Pope was making allowances. A better knowledge of Eastern Orthodoxy and heresies throughout Christian history would have helped the author to recognise this and perhaps given a better perspective on what, truly, was the biggest cultural challenge at the time. Catharism was certainly not the only heresy to become the target of genocide during this time period - the Bogomils themselves, any remaining Paulicians and Manichaeans not already destroyed by the church, Apostolics, to name a very few, also suffered. These alternate christianities that were spreading at this stage of European history can be seen as a precursor to Protestantism, the reformation, and the many eventual, very successful, cultural challenges launched against the old Catholic order after this time period even after suffering through crusades, oppression, and the Inquistions. So it’s a difficult position to defend, the claim that Islam was in fact the biggest cultural challenge, rather than the religious ideas that actually did challenge and morph European culture far more directly and powerfully. The author doesn’t even really defend the claim, just states it as fact and leaves it at that. It feels like it comes from a place of ignorance about the topic, and the treatment of heresies - when they finally do come up - seems to compound this.

This is where the real weakness of this book lies, because not only are the topics stripped of necessary context by strictly delineating them into separate chapters, but the author is not equipped with the knowledge and deftness of narrative skill to properly cover many of the topics involved. A casual reader looking for aspects to further research wouldn’t even know what to look into, because there’s things straight up missing in this book. Oftentimes the author will allude to a greater conversation or depth of topic with a ‘some scholars have argued’ or, even more snarkily, ‘some facile attempt has been made to prove’. But even then it is often a throw away comment that does more to obfuscate than to nod at the wider scholarly discourse, rarely mentioning these apparently misguided other scholars by name, and even these light references to other interpretations are few and far between.

Ultimately, then, this is not a useful book either for people with a grounding in the topics covered - who will feel astonished at everything missing and the contextual barrenness of many chapters - nor casual readers looking for an introduction. The structural problems, along with the clear lack of depth and absence of balanced approach to topics, would leave the unsuspecting reader with a half-arsed understanding not fit to even facilitate further reading or interest.

See my full review here: https://open.substack.com/pub/jesswal...

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jordan set out to write a textbook for beginning students to the medieval period. He traces the period which was fixed between the fall of the Roman Empire and the plagues and famines of Europe's brush with the Black Death. Jordan highlights the dramatic social, political, economic, cultural, religious and military changes.

Why I started this book: I love history books and I have been working my way thru Penguin's series on the history of Europe.

Why I finished it: The High Middle Ages was a time of recovery, trying to build back and build more from the collapse of the Roman Empire... and it was also a time of crusades and the beginning of plagues. A world in commotion, what many feared was the end of the world. The more history that I learn, the greater my appreciation for my own time. There are still many challenges to solve, equality to spread... but we have come so far.

[Khaled · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad introductory survey, but the scholarship does not compare to the previous entry in the series by Chris Wickham.

[Logan Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great survey of the political, economic, cultural, and religious developments during the high middle ages. It is very well written and so easy to comprehend despite moving at a rapid pace.

[Julian Douglass · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was more of a survey than the definitive history of the High Middle Ages. Mr. Jordan knows his stuff and does a good job of giving the meat of the era of the 11-14th centuries without diving too deep into it to drown out the causal reader, but also give a detailed enough account to keep me motivated to read it. I feel the political information is better written than the cultural information, but an enjoyable read overall.

[Ian Mapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Third in a series of 9 books. Looks like book 4 is still not written - so I may be jumping on a few centuries.

This was much easier to read than book 2 and more like the promise shown in book 1.

Covers the era between 1000 and 1400 - shortish chapters based on regions/countries. Some plateworks of photos - mainly architecture. Plenty of maps.

Expected topics covered - crusades, royalty (nice listing of all major countries kings/queens), famines, plagues, religion.

Noteworthy bit of trivia - Canons first used in European battles in the 1300s.

1517-1648 next.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, comfortable review of 1000-1200’s by a fine, conversational scholar. Jordan is both an insightful scholar and a fine storyteller, the perfect companion for a review of thus interesting period. I highly recommend it!

[Emily Heimerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

5 stars as an excellent teaching tool; 3 stars for my own personal enjoyment

[Pzaaa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed how much attention this book gives to the basic realities of late medieval life—what sorts of things a peasant would know how to do, what foods would've been available, what religious meaning things like war and famine would be imbued with. The focus, especially early on, given to geographical imperatives only glossed in the earlier two books was also really interesting, especially for a reader who hasn't traveled very widely in Europe.

This book definitely lacks a lot that the entry before it, The Inheritance of Rome, had: coverage of Near Eastern and North African history made up about a sixth of that book, but doesn't feature at all in this one. Even the Byzantine Empire is scarcely discussed. This book also would've benefited from more insight into the economy of the period, when in the event economic developments aren't really discussed anywhere. The book also lacks something of the organization that earlier book had. Whether certain things were discussed too cursorily, or whether they were just more complex than their analogs in the earlier books in the series, I don't know; but the book should've been longer. Here a book that ought to have been more like 500 pages was crammed into a dense and too often superficial 320.

[Allee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent introduction to the high middle ages. A nice contrast to the preceding book in the Penguin history of Europe series. I finish feeling like I have a broad understanding of the most important political, ecclesiastical, and cultural (broadly defined) developments of the period, and the men and women who were involved in them.
I was most impressed with Jordan's ability to summarize huge theological and intellectual theories in a way that felt comprehensive yet remained summary. Summarizing the work of Thomas Aquinas in 2 or 3 pages in a way that is coherent without getting bogged down is certainly impressive.
As a Catholic I also felt he respected the Church while being honest about her short comings. That's not always easy to find in secular history.

[Daniel Winter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book in general gives an in depth analysis of differing time periods in European Medieval history with precise details to names of kings, princes etc and dates of incidences. However, the book fails to convey this in a coherent manner often skipping from one medieval player to an other without completing the explanation on the former, which often led to confusion when reading the text. The same can be said for when Jordan is discussing a particular event. He will leave this event in the dark and move on to something else 100 years onwards in the same chapter of the book which again causes further confusion and having to research the topic further on the internet which should not happen with a book so precise on its subject (Europe in the a High Middle Ages). Would recommend to those who relish on niche historical trivia.

[James McGhee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fine? I had already recently read Wickham’s The Middle Ages and also Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, so there wasn’t much new here. Good focus on the crusader states, the papacy and Italy. The Roman Empire is no longer “Europe,” though of course it was essential for the prior two books in the series. Says almost nothing about the Rus or anything east of Poland.

Some parts filled in gaps left by the other books, but it did not wow me with things I hadn’t thought about yet, or a different way of thinking about the past. So, fine if you want your first survey book, but read Wickham’s instead.

[George Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice overview of the High Middle Ages. The book doesn't assume any prior knowledge on the part of the reader and does a superb job of providing a summary of different facets of life in the High Middle Ages. These topics range from scholarly debate to agriculture to religion to warfare.

It's a good start for anyone interested in the period but it's a bit dated so be wary if you're intending to use the back for suggested reading.

I particularly enjoyed the portions on scholarly and theological debate. It's brief as well so you don't get mired too long in this area or that.

Highly recommended.

[Alex Teush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though read; very illuminating

On the one hand, reading this book left me with awe many times. It turns out that much of our society today has roots in the high middle ages: Common Law, Universities, Roman Catholic vs Orthopedic church, etc.
Many of the processes mentioned in the book were fascinating: The investiture controversy, the crusades, one hundred years war...
However, it was a difficult read. Sometimes it throws at you a bunch of occurrences, like "this guy killed that guy then those guys killed this other guy" and so on for whole pages... Makes it difficult to read. Therefore gave ot four stars.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent overview of the time period. I didn't enjoy it as much as the first book of the series. It's hard to go into too much depth in such a work, but I felt like at times it was too high-level, with seemingly historical meaningless figures taking up too much. On the other hand, looking at the political and social positions of different peoples around Europe was done well. I don't know if I could have structured the book any better, but I didn't feel like the flow and chapters of the book worked well. In the end, it's a good overview, but I would guess there are better books on this period.

[Caesar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I managed to finish this book, something that cannot be said about the previous entry in the series. While not particularly insightful because it's such a short book and the need to give information of four century gives little space to go in-depth on a topic I would maintain that it does a good job surveying many important events and people that shaped those centuries.

It's not too dry but not engaging either; I would recommend it to someone who knows very little about that era and want a starting point.

[Tanner Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good work of popular history. It is accessible, but it also imparts the essential stories and events from 1000-1400. I really enjoyed it. I listened to it on Audible and the narrator, Leon Nixon, really made the book come alive to me. Typically narrators of histories are dry, a little bland, and often older men with British accents. Leon’s down-to-earth American accent really helped me buy into the history. I would probably read this book again.