The History Of The Medieval World: From The Conversion Of Constantine To The First Crusade (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I enjoyed this second book in Susan Wise Bauer's world history series. Here she tackles the history of the medieval world and does an excellent job. I again enjoyed the interspersing of concurrent events from around the world in adjacent chapters. I learned more about the history ofChina, Japan, Korea, India, and the future Indonesia than I'd ever known before. The treatment of the Byzantine, Persian, Arabic, and Turkic empires was excellent and well integrated as well. I especially enjoyed the sections on the development of the Frankish empires and the migrations of the Angles Saxons Juts an norse into various portions of Europe. The introduction of the Rus, Bulgars, Magyars and many others was fascinating. Finally the place of English, Scottish, and Irish history in all of this was perfectly integrated. I cannot fail to mention the introduction of the New World in this book both directly from the native records in Central and South America and the Viking accounts from the North American continent.As someone who studied history in school decades ago, I am impressed by the impact of the modern, entire world based view, captured in this excellent introductory text. I have already requested the next book in this series from our library. I know one reason not to read this for historical knowledge just by looking at the cover; Constantine never converted. His mother, he allowed Christians to build churches, then taxed them, and he forced them to form the first Council to make decisions regarding teaching, Bible text, and cease squabbling and violence between the various sects. For this, Constantine was honoured during and after his death, however, there has never been historical evidence that he ever converted. Even on his death bed, he refused communion.If a book makes a historical falsehood in it's title, it's a sure bet it will be worthless for the majority of it's research.
What do You think about The History Of The Medieval World: From The Conversion Of Constantine To The First Crusade (2010)?
Not quite as fun as the previous one, but that might be the nature of this period of history.
—lenny
Very in depth look at the entire world during the early medieval period.
—hopesampson
