The Cambridge Medieval History Collection

by John Bagnell Bury, Norman Hepburn Baynes, Louis Halphen

The Cambridge Medieval History Collection is a fantastic and comprehensive history of medieval Europe. 

Featuring: 

Volume 1 - THE CHRISTIAN ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE TEUTONIC KINGDOMS
Volume 2 - THE RISE OF THE SARACENS AND THE FOUNDATION OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE
Volume 3 - GERMANY AND THE WESTERN EMPIRE
Volume 4 - THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE
and
Volume 5 - THE CONTEST OF EMPIRE AND PAPACY

Genres: History, Nonfiction

5370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

John Bagnell Bury (often published as J.B. Bury) was a classical scholar, historian, and philologist. He held the chair in Modern History at Trinity College, Dublin, for nine years, and also was appointed Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity, and Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University.

Reviews

[Nicholas Lefevre · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, as for most people, the Dark Ages are dark. I studied some Egyptian history, Greek history, and the history of the Roman Empire. Then there's some muddled stuff about Vandals, Goths, and Crusades followed by The Renaissance when they turned on the lights again. That dark part in the middle is the subject of these 5,000+ pages.

Why did I read this? Masochism? The sadistic pleasure of telling others. I dunno.

There are surely better ways to learn this piece of history. It's a compilation of pieces ordered somewhat chronologically, somewhat geographically, and partly topically. Some sections are written by individuals and others are collaborations. One thing I learned has nothing to do with history. I learned that historians, particularly the academicians, are rarely good writers. Sentences can be endless. Ordinary words are shunned when a thesaurus offers something obscure.

There are exceptions and the reader is occasionally treated to a break from tedious verbosity (oops) with a chapter of clear historical narrative.

For a mere mortal like myself, this tome shovels names and places at too fast a pace and vast a volume to retain more than a tiny fraction. I've had to settle for absorbing the broad themes and trends. Ultimately few of these were surprising. We see almost a thousand years of competition for dominance between secular and ecclesiastical powers. When not competing we see symbiotic cooperation to maintain power over the mere serfs. We see power shifts between East and West; between heathens, Christians and Muslims; and between agrarian and mercantile power.

I can't recommend this to anyone who doesn't pound his head with a hammer because if feels so good to stop. I do admit that it does feel good to have finished.

[George Polansky · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good reference.