Medieval Europe

By: Chris Wickham

Narrated by: Derek Perkins

Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period - one not easily chronicled within a single volume. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation.

Tracking the entire sweep of the Middle Ages across Europe, Wickham focuses on important changes century by century, including such pivotal crises and moments as the fall of the western Roman Empire, Charlemagne's reforms, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rebuilding of late medieval states, and the appalling devastation of the Black Death. He provides illuminating vignettes that underscore how shifting social, economic, and political circumstances affected individual lives and international events. Wickham offers both a new conception of Europe's medieval period and a provocative revision of exactly how and why the Middle Ages matter.

©2016 Chris Wickham (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Dense reading , but in a very good way.

this book is packed with information and many might say that it is "Dry reading", but really the author (who is a professor at Oxford University) is just trying to convey is vast array of knowledge on the period. I have listened/read his other book also "The Inheritance of Rome" and this is like a continuation of that volume. I look forward to reading anything more in the future by Professor Chris Wikham and would like to thank him also for writing this as well as his other book "The Inheritance of Rome" . These are both excellent books to listen to as well as just study/analyze.

Good but hard to follow

The book is informative and the narrator is pretty good. I just wish it was written in common language so us peasants could be able to follow and understand it better.

excellent content, wonderful narrator.

it's a wonderful listen. The bookworms with information. there's a lot to assimilate, but the narrator is smooth, clear, and completely engaging.

Amazing Historical Overview

Not a trained historian, merely an interested reader of history, this highly contextualized overview of a 1000yrs of history was thought provoking and informative. I can't recommend highly enough, if you're interested in medieval history this book is a must read to help understand the many complex developments that occur in this amazing period of European history.

Good overview that inspires more reading

great narration and book. very dense and great information. I found it hard to follow at times with a lot of dates being thrown out at once, I think this is more a product of the audio book medium than the fault of the author or book.

very academic but enjoyed the background.

I wish I had had such a class in school. very entertaining nice even reading.

Great Account of History-Sad Story of Human Nature

I always enjoy reading purported factual historical commentary. I trust this book fits that description. I thourouly enjoyed it. But I couldn't help think of this as more of the same historical accounts I have read, of how faulty the human condition is (fallen state from a faith based standpoint). The story of human existence is so fraught with conquest, empire building, power. egotistical satisfaction, subjugation, cruelty. and exploitation of others that I wonder if war and conflict in pursuit those endeavors doesn't constitute the majority of time engaged in such activity. I would love to see a National Geographic summary graph comparing years of war and conflict vs years of relative peace and tranquility over the ages. A sort of Good vs Evil or Peace vs War tally. An added facet might highlight what would be considered as "a just war" thinking WW II might fit that bill. I would not include any conflict that was based on territorial expansion or religious ideology as just cause for the instigation of war.I am afraid the result of such a summary would condemn us as a species.

Having said all of that, I enjoyed listening to the account of the Medieval Europe me I found it peculiar that the author referred to the Great Schism as the Protestant Reformation when that term is usually reserved for the 1054 split between West vs East churches, Rome (latin) vs Constantinople/Antioch/Jerusalem/Alexandria (greek). I suppose in the context of European history the big split is that historical event but a mis- characterization from a church historical point if view.

Just another "Great Man" history

Just a tedious list of Popes and Kings and Emporers. No mention of the impacts of technology or the environment or even cultural changes. Just like the tedious high school texts of my youth. Not very illumunating.. Just could not force myself to finish.

Over my head

Bit off more than I could grasp. Need a much better grounding in the medieval world to follow. There are assumption that you’ll know the reference off the top of your head is not for beginners.

I really wish this book was renamed.

A better name for this book would've been "Medieval Europe: The Politics" because that was what the majority of it was. Don't get me wrong... I love politics and I have sat through both the Watergate Report by the Select Committee and the Nuremburg Trials. However. I only really enjoyed about 4 hours out of the total 15 hours of this book because of all the messy and instructured politics. I had picked this book up intending on hearing the daily lives of people, various professions, the medical knowledge of the times, and etc and most of it was a let down.

If you get this book and would like to know where the actual interesting bits are please fast foward to the 11 to 12 hour mark. I figured the politics would be a small chunk of the book... Not the majority. Just tell us you want to write about only the politics then, sheesh.

Okay so I think a good reason this book falls apart is that the author spread himself TOO thin and tried to bring up all the politics and powers-that-be at the times in a really weird fashion. I think had he segmented it down into blocks of time and then further by each region he would be more coherent. He verbally makes me feel cross-eyed because of how scattered all this imformation is. Or maybe it could've been structured by region? "But instead of Europe as a whole let us focus on what the Medieval Middle East was doing during these times." Just a bit better structure and it would've been LEAGUES better. If you were to organize a movie in this fashion that he talked most of the audience would be baffled as to what is going on because he is trying to talk about every square inch of the world all at once.

A major thing that bothered me was the constant noting to other chapters. I felt that was too heavy. Almost every chapter had him rattling off a "Please see chapter xx" and sometimes it felt like every other sentence. I understand he is trying to reference it to others who are interested but having it constantly rattled off was annoying when I was reading that chapter at hand.

The womens' section was disappointing. After all the hype and the constant "We will explain the womens' roles in xx chapter" hint drops all the time... Well I kept waiting for it. I was interested because at first he said "All you hear about are the prominent queens and figureheads. The rich." And that he MIGHT tell me some bit of daily lives for women or more minor roles. And the daily lives... Was extremely small. He claimed to want to describe women other than the famous or rich ones which I suppose he did but the women he described still seemed well off, rich, etc. I understand a lot of surviving texts was from more prominent families and hard to get more details on but... Well, he did a great job on the peasant revolts vs the rich side's take on it and demonstrating how skewed it was. I enjoyed that. The womens' bit was a let down because he didn't really do the same.

And he absolutely played down the Black Death. I don't think it was as ever small as he was attempting to make it out to be. His view on it was interesting but I feel he underplayed it, didn't talk that much about it, and proceeded right back into his own personal love letters to the genre of 'politics'. That's great, my guy, but rename the book or label ituch more clearly if you wish to rattle on and on about politics rather than anything else.

Overall I did waste a great deal of my time on this. Had he structured it better, renamed or better described it, didn't spread himself so thin so suddenly, and stopped with the constant other chapter mentions it would be a lot better. Yeah- My biggest complaint absolutely is that he spread himself too thin and wanted to talk about multiple happenings at once. Which I understand- They did. But we'd be talking about Spain and then suddenly it was England. Then suddenly China. Structure it better. Do sections or adhere to timelines better. I nearly put it down rather quick because of that but I trudged through. Those last 4 hours were very interesting and what I wanted more of!