Years That Changed History: 1215

by Dorsey Armstrong

What is so important about the year 1215? There are some history buffs who may be able to tell you that 1215 is the year the Magna Carta was signed, but there are even fewer who know that King John of England’s acceptance of this charter was only one of four major, world-changing events of this significant year. In fact, the social, cultural, political, geographical, and religious shifts that occurred in this year alone had such a huge impact on the entire world, it warrants an entire course of study for anyone truly interested in the pivotal points of history that brought us to where we are now.

As it turns out, the year 1215 was a major turning point in world history. Although the drafting of the Magna Carta is perhaps the most well-known event of 1215, anyone in Europe at the time would have told you the meeting of the Church’s Fourth Lateran Council was much more significant. Meanwhile, in Asia, a Mongol ruffian named Genghis Khan was embarking on a mission for world domination, beginning with his success at the Battle of Beijing, while Islam was experiencing a Golden Age centered around Baghdad’s House of Wisdom. Other cultures and societies around the globe were also experiencing pivotal moments in their development - from the Americas to Africa and Asia and beyond.

These seismic events were only possible thanks to a confluence of global conditions, starting with the climate. Although we might not be familiar with the specifics, the ripple effect from these events can still be felt all over the world today. Years That Changed 1215 is a unique course, offering you the chance to delve into one of the most interesting periods in world history. Over 24 fast-paced lectures, Professor Dorsey Armstrong of Purdue University gives you the Big History of this surprisingly impactful year, introducing you to the people, events, and wide-ranging influences of the year 1215.

Among other fascinating discoveries, you will investigate how climate changes affected the population of Europe; explore the circumstances for the Magna Carta (which originally had nothing to do with human rights and liberty for everyday people); find out why the Fourth Lateran Council mattered so much; and tour the world beyond Europe to gain a true sense of global history. This last point about “global history” is an important one. Most history courses have to select a theme, which by its nature limits the scope of the curriculum. In choosing a year as her theme, Professor Armstrong is able to take you around the world, from the ancient Maya to the House of Baghdad to Shogun Japan. Professor Armstrong takes the world as her theme - and what a truly captivating world it is!

PLEASE When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Medieval, Historical, Medieval History, Religion

13 pages, Audible Audio

First published May 24, 2019

About the author

Dr. Dorsey Armstrong is Associate Professor of English and Medieval Literature at Purdue University, where she has taught since 2002. The holder of an A.B. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from Duke University, she also taught at Centenary College of Louisiana and at California State University, Long Beach. Her research interests include medieval women writers, late-medieval print culture, and the Arthurian legend, on which she has published extensively, including the 2009 book Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript and Gender and the Chivalric Community in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, published in 2003. In January 2009, she became editor-in-chief of the academic journal Arthuriana, which publishes the most cutting-edge research on the legend of King Arthur, from its medieval origins to its enactments in the present moment. Her current research project-Mapping Malory's Morte-is an exploration of the role played by geography in Malory's version of the story of King Arthur.

Reviews

[Kiekiat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I am in love with a woman that doesn't even know I exist, and wouldn't care if she did know. That woman is Professor Dorsey Armstrong, creator of this course ostensibly about the year 1215 in what some historians call, 'The High Middle Ages." What's even worse is that she is already married, presumably happily, so I shall have to pine away for her from afar while listening to her many Great Courses offerings and basking at the sound of her clear and assured voice with its upper-class California accent (if such an accent actually exists).

"Years That Changed History: 1215" is a Great Courses lecture series of 24 half-hour lectures. Professor Dorsey Armstrong, setting aside my infatuation with her, is a riveting lecturer and obviously has stuffed her head with one hell of a lot of knowledge. Why this should be surprising to me, considering she has a PhD. in Medieval Studies, is perhaps because so few of my own professors seemed to have heads stuffed with such erudition, though my judgment may be clouded since I was stoned during almost every class I bothered to attend.

I must also admit I am a sucker for "year" books--books titled by a particular year and describing life in that year, often as it was occurring in various parts of the world. I own many such books, though I confess I have yet to read one. This course is simply an audio version of such a book, as told by a giantess of learning.

Professor Dorsey centers the lectures around the year 1215 and leads with three lectures on the Magna Carta, a document drafted and signed in that year after some disaffected plutocrats raised holy hell at having to fund King John's righteous wars through what the (robber) barons considered extravagant feudal payments to the Crown. The entire sordid history of this document is covered and from there Professor Dorsey moves on to church matters and discusses at length the reasons for the Fourth Lateran Council and what edicts were established there and she continues on to discuss the ramifications of this important church meeting, the takeaway being that guidelines were established for Godly Christians on methods to persecute infidel Muslims and Jews, a prelude to the Crusades to come.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_C...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_...

A couple of side lectures follow, one on the goings-on in the Americas, as they were not known then, essentially among the Inca, the Mayas and the Pueblo peoples. Why she neglected to report on the 500+ tribes living in North America I cannot quite fathom? The lecture on the Native Americans is followed up with happenings in Africa among the Mali Empire, the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and the Ethiopian Empire.

After covering these godless peoples she returns to the a series of lectures on the righteous crusades to vanquish the false believers and restore God's true holy city of Jerusalem. Professor Dorsey has about 100 IQ points on me, so I am not doing justice to the marvelous asides sprinkled throughout her lectures on these multifarious happenings. An excellent example of this is her discourses about the mysterious "Medieval Warming Period" lasting from 950 CE to 1250 CE, causing temperatures to rise to similar levels they are approaching today. My conspiracy group, uh, I mean my book club, tends to attribute this warming to the occupation of Earth by space aliens using fossil fuels that precipitated this inexplicable heat wave. Professor Dorsey does not seem to be aware of this theory, but does make many interesting points as to how this climate change impacted life in the Northern Hemisphere, the area experiencing the greatest temperature rises. A great deal of the lectures after her discussion of Africa focus on the impact of the fourth Lateran Council on the Jews and the increasing tension between Jews and Christians after this holy confab.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieva...

One obvious result of covering such a broad range of topics is that Professor Dorsey, by necessity, has to range before and after the year 1215 to paint with a broad brush over many significant world events and occurrences. This sort of history is called "Big History" for a reason.

This broad brush extends into the 13th Century in discussions of such topics as the alleged "Blood Libel" of the Jews and other persecutions they suffered due to their failure to accept the one true world religion. There is also a wonderful lecture on St. Francis and the budding of many monastic orders (I recommend the biographical novel, 'St. Francis' by Nikos Kazantzakis for a moving account of this gentle, animal-obsessed man's life). St. Francis is followed by a stern lecture on the apostate Cathars who rebelled in France and turned away from the Church's true doctrines. I was shocked to learn that these errant sinners still are operating in France even today. In my French travails, I thought "Cathar" was the name of a French football (soccer) team.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism (WARNING: May induce drowsiness. Avoid driving or operating heavy machinery or any task requiring fine motor skills after reading)

The brush strokes get even longer as Professor Dorsey gives a fascinating account of the Mongol Dynasty, tracing the lineage and eventual conquests of the great? Genghis Khan and the dynasty that arose due to the masterful strategy of this lowlyTemujin (Genghis Khan) and the trials and tribulations of his heirs as they maneuvered to maintain and expand their almost total world domination. A lecture on the status of women in 1215 follows after the series on the Mongols. Professor Armstrong gives us accounts of some of the era's most powerful and respected women, such as Heloise, Hildegard of Bingen and Eleanor of Acquitaine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildega...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genghis...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A9...

An informative lecture on the state of Islam in 1215, followed by a talk on the Japan of the same era make up the bulk of the course. I strongly recommend this course for someone that enjoys taking in vast amounts of information, along with perceptive analysis. Obviously, the weakness of such a course is going to be that many areas of the world are not going to get covered in a mere 24 lectures, and some topics that are covered will get short-shrift.

Fortunately, for those as crazy as I am (admittedly not many), there are multitudinous tomes elaborating on ALL these topics, and also serving to fill up the big empty that some of us face as we go through our days. A course like this, already chock-full of knowledge taught by an engaging pedagogue (almost an oxymoron), can be seen as a starting point rather than a finish.

ขี้เกียจ
ผม เป็นพวก หนอนหนังสือ น่ะ ครับ :)

[Bruce Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prof. Armstrong is an amazing speaker. The lessons are well-designed and her delivery is, as always, magnificent. Some of the lectures were less engaging, but that's a consequence of Dr. Armstrong wanting to expand her exposure of the period outside of Europe and Asia, and stretching the eponymous 1215 several decades one way or the other. Over all, though, I recommend this and look forward to watching another of her courses.

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first time I find myself disappointed in a lecture series from Dr. Dorsey Armstrong. Although she was her usual, knowledgeable, energetic, fierce self, I can't say I am convinced at all that 1215 was a year that changed history. Sure, the Magna Carta appeared, but Dr. Armstrong herself suggests that its influence was and is along a pretty narrow band of world history.

Most of these lectures cover roughly 150 years with 1215 in the center of the discussion. We get plenty of context for the year, plenty of the picture after the year, and many of those events on either side of 1215 seem much more interesting and significant (plague anyone? I know Dr. Armstrong was thinking it because her best lecture series is all about the plague).

I did learn plenty. And as Dr. Armstrong's lectures always prompt me to do, I find myself looking down new avenues I wouldn't usually travel. But the title of this lecture was just misleading enough to annoy me every time a new chapter took me further away from the big date.

[Shannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As she mentions multiple times throughout the course, Professor Armstrong is by no means an expert on the history of the world as a whole, specializing in particular in medieval European history. However, as a seasoned historian, it's clear she did a thorough course of self education on the world of 1215 as a whole in order to prepare for this course, and she provides a remarkable view of not only the body of land in which she specializes, but in every connecting place the remarkable people and events that filled this time period. She does lend particular attention to Europe of 1215, but she by no means neglects the rest of the planet, and I feel my appetite is more than whetted to learn more about the Mongol Empire, Zimbabwe, and the Incas, to name a few. It's remarkable how many different yet world altering things could occur in one given year and it was thoroughly fascinating to get a glimpse of it.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Billed as a course for undergraduates, but I think it would play as well to an academic middle school audience. Decent overview, I guess, but I was hoping for more specific details rather than all those general observations and claims...and Armstrong's coy style of delivery put me off.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have the slightest interest in medieval history, you really can't go wrong with Dorsey Armstrong's lectures. (Well, unless you're an expert on the subject, in which case you're presumably off giving lectures of your own.) While her expertise lies mainly in the history of medieval Britain and thus that's where this lecture series is concentrated, the subjects touched upon across these 24 lectures nevertheless stretch far beyond that to Asia, Africa and the Americas. Time contraints of course mean that a lot can only be covered superficially, but it's enough to whet the appetite for more in-depth knowledge from a more specifically focussed source. As always, Armstrong is informative and immensely entertaining, the combination of which makes her an excellent lecturer.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. World history in (and around) the watershed year of 1215. A great way to put everything in context and not perceive individual events as isolated. I wish history was taught this way.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a wonderful series of lectures that is widespread. It covers not just Western medieval history, but also the Mongols, early American history, China and Japan, and the Islamic Golden Age. My favorite lecture, by far, was about the life of women under Genghis Khan.

[Stephen Heiner · Rating 1 out of 5]

I very rarely stop reading a book because I often take care in selecting them. But even when a book disappoints me I am not usually so dramatically disappointed as to have to stop and return the title, which I did in this case (as an aside - thanks for a wonderful return policy, Audible!).

The Middle Ages were an age of Faith, above all else, and Dorsey Armstrong comes, very obviously, to those issues as an outsider. There's nothing wrong with that, in one sense: it's very good for people to learn about things with which they have no experience. However, when you presume to teach about those things without having the requisite background you do society the great disservice of miseducation.

Put another way, would you ask a vegan chef to cook and prepare meat courses for you, assuming the cook can't/won't taste any of those dishes? You might come away from the meal satisfied, but it doesn't mean that what you received was the best preparation. Worse, in our day of "beyond beef" you may very well have been served soy disguised as bacon (which always begs the question, if vegans love being vegan so much, why do they make so many foods taste like meat? a mystery for another day).

Professor Armstrong starts promisingly, by giving a serviceable explanation of Magna Carta's role and its movement from "piece of paper" to "governing and sacred document in English history." I've spent the last five months studying the Plantagenets so Magna Carta and this particular time period is of interest to me, and in part why I was so excited to get into a series of lectures that focused on one year in particular.

More slightly good news before I get to the very bad...Professor Armstrong does take the time to discuss what is going on in Asia, the Americas, and Africa during this year. While none of the happenings are ultimately consequential for world history (or even regional history) it is fascinating to have a global perspective for the year.

Okay, so the bad news: Professor Armstrong at best misunderstands the Catholic Church as a merely human institution (no other human institution has lasted thousands of years) and at worst is intellectually dishonest about what she is teaching. Misrepresentations include:

Jews being forced to "convert or be killed." There is no policy in Christianity that speaks about "conversion or death." That's Islam. And they have a long history of forcing Jews to convert or die. But Professor Armstrong, following the current intellectual mainstream, has only the nicest things to say about Saladin.

Crusaders mostly interested in rape and pillage, engaged in an offensive war. While she does a passable job of explaining some of the reasons leading up to the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople (one of the most shameful episodes in Christian history) she sees this as a part of the entire project of the Crusades, and once again fails to point out the fairly obvious: the Crusades were a defensive set of engagements. Jews and Christians who had lived there for centuries before were conquered and subjugated by Muslims who made their way there in the 6th century. She uses the same language to discuss the Spanish Reconquista, characterizing it as some sort of "attack on Muslims" when it was Islamic armies that invaded Iberia and drove the ethnic Spanish to a small mountain hideout which was where they began their glorious fightback which culminated in 1492, when the invaders were finally expelled.

Christianity as some "radical sect of Judaism" that was mostly unorganized until the Middle Ages. Patently false, and this is even more ridiculous given that she spends two lectures speaking about the Fourth Lateran Council, which was the *twelfth* ecumenical council of the Church, and the Council of Jerusalem, not numbered among the ecumenical councils, happened some time after the death of Our Lord. Christianity was never a "radical sect of Judaism." It was separate from the very day of the Crucifixion. Professor Armstrong is simply trying to denigrate Christianity, again, because she sees it as a merely human institution, rather than as a supernatural one that could not have survived intrigues, politics, corruption, and bad leadership unless it was something other than of this world.

I think it is good to listen to points of view that you disagree with. Such a practice keeps you sharp and consistently challenges you to see if your beliefs are worth believing, to see if they will stand up to scrutiny. But when someone lies or blatantly misrepresents facts of history (I will not do Professor Armstrong the dishonor of saying she is too ignorant to know what she is doing) the experience is neither pleasant nor helpful.

Only listen to this series of lectures if you want Buzzfeed history delivered in the guise of The Onion: breezy, but inaccurate.

[Micah · Rating 4 out of 5]

1215 as a course is a really fun way to explore what was happening on nearly every continent and among most of the more established world cultures of the world in the general time period. Why 1215? In this single year, the Magna Carta was signed, the 4th Lateran Counsel determined huge shifts in the western church, and Ghengis Khan invaded and began to methodically conquer China.

This course covers so much ground and Professor Armstrong is an incredible communicator who is both fun and enlightening, covering all sorts of material that falls within outside of her own area of expertise. While spending most of its time in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, the course also looks are Pueblo peoples of North America, the Mayan and Incan cultures of South America, and the kingdoms of Ethiopian Mali, and Zimbabwe in Africa. In most instances, a significant backstory and future projection is given, so that the course regularly looks a century or so into the history and resulting changes of any given cultural event.

It is incredibly to look at such a broad swath of history and see how religions and cultural beliefs evolved and migrated and abused one another, how every system has been used both to enlightened and to oppress, how many places in the world have evolved from centers of learning to ruins and back. For a true sense of the world we live in and the nature of human development, warfare, religious practice, and cultural development, a slice of the world like this is a really effective learning opportunity.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Review of the Audiobook

Published in 2019 by The Great Courses.
Lectures by Dorsey Armstrong.
Duration: 12 hours, 29 minutes.
Unabridged.

The Great Courses offers a lecture series by college professors that the average person can listen to on their own time. In this case, Purdue University history professor Dorsey Armstrong is focusing on the year 1215 as a pivotal year.

1215 is well-known to Americans as the year of the Magna Carta, but it is also the year of the Fourth Lateran Council of the Catholic Church. The rest of the lecture series is about general things that were going on around 1215. These include the crusades, a brief look at the Americas, a look at the Islamic world, Japan, and an extended look at Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire.

This is a lecture series that could have used a bit of editing. If two hours were removed, that would have been good. Three hours would have been great. This was especially true in the section about Genghis Khan. Armstrong admitted that she was excited about this topic and she really just laid on the details - way too many details for even this history teacher. It just got bogged down in the early details of his life and scooted through the height of the Mongol Empire and its eventual collapse.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5. I don't really blame Armstrong for this - this series tends to like 20+ half hour lectures and I don't think this was a rich enough vein of information for her to mine.

https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2024...

[Ryan Patrick]

Disappointing. DNF at about 50%. I love the idea of exploring the world in 1215. I just wish they had gotten a historian to do it instead of a literature professor. I found the whole thing a bit shallow, although I admit to not being the target audience for this lecture series, seeing as how I could be the presenter for such a series.

It's not just the shallowness of the content, though; the presenter makes a few mistakes or mischaracterizes some aspects of medieval Europe (like feudalism). She also allows her biases to show forth—she clearly loves R. I. Moore's book The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 and she is overly fascinated/critical of the fourth crusade—yes, they did some bad things by our standards, but a historian's goal should be to understand why they did it, not just chastise them for it.

I'm going to move on to something I know less about, and learn something new.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Professor Armstrong presents a wonderfully organized and well prepared overview of a critical time period in world history. It is neither detailed nor comprehensive, and, I think, never intended to be.
I appreciated the attempts to bring in historical events that happened outside of our usual western European point of view and particularly enjoyed the background on Genghis Khan and his impact on a large part of the world during this time frame.
This course, like many others in the Great Courses library, is meant to spark interest in a particular subject or historic time period, and should guide the reader/listener/watcher to delve deeper into any subject that tickles his or her fancy.
Good course...Dorsey does a great job!
Coupon/sale...you know the drill.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love history books that connect events happening in one part of the world with another, even if the only connection is that they are occurring at the same time. That’s what Dorsey Armstrong does here. She takes snapshots around the world 1215 to show how fundamental change was happening everywhere: Magna Carta, the Fourth Lateran Council, Genghis Kahn, Japan, Africa, and North America. It’s a delightful little set of lectures.

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

[Jquick99 · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. I’m surprised by this. I’m a history buff who has listened to probably 20 Great Courses books, all have been 4 - 5 stars. Love them. But NOT this one. I guess the author spends too much time with the Magna Carta, bouncing around in time, and then decides to discuss what was happening in the Americas, which she freely admits is pretty much nothing. And just like that, I lost interest.

It also didn’t help, interest wise, that most of the first lecture was the author going over/discussing what the course would cover.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Armstrong is an excellent lecturer and keeps your attention easily. I have done several of her courses and have enjoyed each, as well as learned a lot about each of the topics. She seems well versed in each of the topics she addresses and frequently suggests other courses that go more in depth on something she's discussing. I would recommend any of her courses.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another mediocre text about an event with a sole quality: it happened in the White world. And a governmental bureaucrat that has to push paper in order to get more money from the taxpayer's pocket. And no, years don't change anything. Years abstract marks invented to index time. If only academics would have to pass an IQ test!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5
I haven't been disappointed yet with any of the great courses I've listened to. This was so interesting and I learned a lot. I appreciate that the author/lecturer didnt just focus on a eurocentric view, but let us know about what was going on in other parts of the world, that made it even better.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
I absolutely love this presenter. I would listen to her lecture on a telephone book. She is clear, engaging, loves her subjects, and always teaches me new material. I knew that 1215 was the date that the infamous King John of England was forced to sign the Magna Carta. I wasn't aware that its significance was not realized until later and that this event passed nearly unnoticed by most contemporaries. Over the centuries it has become one of bedrock documents of democracy for our country and a number of others.

I also was unaware of other important events across the globe that occurred on or close to 1215, and that substantial changes in world events and attitudes resulted. This audiobook from the Great Courses stands out from their other excellent offerings and I believe that much of the credit is due to the skill of Professor Armstrong herself. I wish we could clone her.

[Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great. It was so much better than I thought. I didn't have super high expectations, but I got it in a 2-for-1 sale on Audible, so it felt worth a try. The lectures were fascinating and well organized. The lecturer was one of the best I've ever listened to, it was easy to stay engaged with her style and delivery. I will definitely seek out other things she has published or been a part of.

[Mason Frierson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing look at the world circa 1215, investigating topics like the Magna Carta, Genghis Khan, the Crusades, Japanese samurai, histories of major religions, great civilizations of Africa and the Americas, etc. Professor Armstrong keeps the lectures fun and easy to follow.

[misha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all as good as I expected- the information is shallow, the narration flat and the ‘jokes’ meant to spruce up the narrative are so one dimensional, it made me cringe. This may also just be my ear, but the butchered pronunciations of names and locations had me grinding my teeth.

[Sarah Toppins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lively narrative and narrator that outlined an important time period that began a lot of the changes we live with today - crusades, Genghis Khan, the division of sections of the world by religions, and more.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much better than the description. I really like Dorsey Armstrong and she doesn't disappoint.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Dorsey Armstrong. I will listen to anything she does. ❤

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to the audio version. Great treatment of the topic. Intelligently presented and accessible to most people who would be interested. You do not have to be a historian to enjoy this course.

[JoAnn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The world has been interconnected in more ways than anyone imagined earlier than our school lessons suggest.

[John Morris ii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Armstrong is a gem! She deconstructs a pivotal year with deep knowledge and with an ease that is a wonder!

[Amanda]

My least favorite Dorsey Armstrong course so far (aka very interesting and worth listening to but her others are more compelling)

[Samwell Raleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore Dorsey Armstrong, even if I find her a bit hokey at times