Medieval Horizons
Why the Middle Ages Matter
Published on 23. February 2023
256 pages
978-1-5291-9713-6 (ISBN)
Description
The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the bestselling author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England
We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world.
We couldn't be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, people's horizons - their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world - expanded dramatically. Life was utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare.
Just as The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the era as a whole. It outlines the enormous cultural changes that took place - from literacy to living standards, inequality and even the developing sense of self - thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.
Praise for Ian Mortimer:
'The endlessly inventive Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time' - The Times
We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward and unchanging time characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. By contrast we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world.
We couldn't be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, people's horizons - their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world - expanded dramatically. Life was utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare.
Just as The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the era as a whole. It outlines the enormous cultural changes that took place - from literacy to living standards, inequality and even the developing sense of self - thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.
Praise for Ian Mortimer:
'The endlessly inventive Ian Mortimer is the most remarkable medieval historian of our time' - The Times
Reviews / Votes
An account of a profoundly misunderstood period, which shows that the Middle Ages were not marked by violence and superstition. Instead, huge steps in social and economic progress were made, and the foundations of the modern world were laid * The Economist * This enlightening account shows there was more to the period than plague, superstition and violence * Economist, *Books of the Year* *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Random House (Digital)
File size
6,63 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-5291-9713-6 (9781529197136)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
02/2024
Vintage
€16.50
Available immediately
Person
Dr Ian Mortimer is the Sunday Times-bestselling author of the Time Traveller's Guides to Medieval England, Elizabethan England, Restoration Britain and Regency Britain, as well as four critically acclaimed medieval biographies. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1998. His work on the social history of medicine won the Alexander Prize in 2004 and was published by the Royal Historical Society in 2009. He lives with his wife and three children in Moretonhampstead, on the edge of Dartmoor.
