Customer Reviews

The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The confusion with all of the different opinions on this classic college introductory European medieval history text are clearly due to the differences in the backgrounds of the various readers.

Cantor has produced a book that is absolutely wonderful in it's ability to pull together the twisted history of both major and minor events throughout Europe and relate them to one another. Being able to understand how Papal politics impacted the Germanic Princes and then caused reactions in England and the Low Countries, which then produced French political events that influenced the Papacy.....great stuff when it can all come together like this!

Cantor can read like an enjoyable novel if you have an active interest in the medieval period, he points out the seeds of feminism and does a good job of placing them in the context of the period, he does the same for heresy, piety and the monastic movements, law and politics, the development of monarchism, the growth of the bourgeoisie, and a host of other factors and elements from the middle ages.

There are valid criticisms of his work though....some of his facts are wrong (some he should have know and others have now had additional historical thought added to them)....for example, the Turks taking Constantinople and the details of the death of Thomas a Becket. More serious to me though is the lack of footnotes (which are so essential to credibility that the readability issues must take second consideration) and the total lack of maps to help with orientations (especially important for those not intimately familiar with medieval European geography).

I've created lists that provide Amazon links to Cantor's top 10 medieval books and top 10 films, if you want to continue to follow the syllabus for medieval understanding that he lays out in the book.

This is a book you should buy if you wish to understand the Middle Ages. But I must tell you that I was very nearly put off it by the author's tragically flawed understanding of Greek and Roman society. Greek and Roman culture are my areas of interest so I do feel I have some basis upon which to offer this critique.

The fact that his understanding of ancient society is flawed is rather frightening, because, as Cantor himself says, "...the heritage of the ancient world set the conditions for medieval society." So as I waded further into his book it was with considerable trepidation. If he got Greece and Rome so very, very wrong, how on earth could he get the Middle Ages right?

For example, reflect upon this near polemical attack on the Roman educational system (which seems to be to blame for a lot if Cantor is to be believed):

"The Romans were psychologically damaged by their educational system, as evidenced by their violence, aggression, sadism, hostility to women, and other unattractive characteristics. Children were treated badly, indeed, and many of them grew up to be sadomasochists."

It gets better. He goes on to remark that "...vestiges of this system have lived on into the twentieth century. The educational system of the medieval church was based on the Roman, and there were a good many neurotic educated adults within the medieval church."

And what exactly are the characteristics of the Roman educational system that produced this race of monsters? "It is a natural system for an aristocratic society, which needs to train its young people only to accept power handed on to them." The men who taught these benighted children were, and I QUOTE: "often slaves and frequently frustrated, sadistic men."

Wow!!! When you read something as novel and outlandish as this, you really want to see some source documentation. But you will be disappointed here. These remarks are not foot-noted and indeed one of the GRAVE failings of this book is that despite the fact Cantor re-edited and updated the entire text, he does not offer foot-notes. Having said that, his bibliography is quite good -- it is organized around a sort of top ten list format. But, curiously, the bibliography is placed AFTER a list of the best movies (!) on the Middle Ages.

I suppose like many scholars, he is a "man of his period" so to speak. His understanding of the Middle Ages is fluent and masterful, but his knowledge of the epochs that preceded it scanty and ill founded. Still I find it breath taking that he could be so wrong in places.

Having said this, my patience was rewarded. And my reading on the Middle Ages that I undertook as a result of this book have affirmed my faith in Cantor: he does, after all, get most of it right!

What was revolutionary about Cantor's book is that, as the jacket says, his was the "first comprehensive general history of the Middle Ages to centre on medieval culture and religion rather than political history."

A vital companion to this would be John Julius Norwich's three volume series on Byzantium and Marcia Colish's "Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition 400-1400 (Yale Intellectual History of the West)". Do not, under any circumstances bother with William Manchester's gravely flawed: "A World Lit Only By Fire" (for why I say that, see my review of that book).

As a newcomer to the history of the Middle Ages, this book was my first in the subject (other than textbooks from college on Western Civilization). I have truly enjoyed it and it has given me a decent overview of the vast era (and he has an excellent list of further reading, including movies!), but it definitely wasn't what I was expecting, as it is more of a narrative than a simple laying out of the facts. Being a narrative has its advantages (it makes for a more interesting read, almost like a novel at times), but it can certainly be confusing. As expected, the book has a general trend of moving chronologically forward from the disintigration of the Roman Empire to the beginnings of the Renaissance, but the subjects are organized more by theme than date, and this can be very confusing for a newcomer to the field. As one reviewer mentioned, not having any maps and some sort of timeline to put everything together is a big problem, something which is really needed to give the book cohesion.

I found the way Cantor introduced the Middle Ages to be highly enlightening. He starts from the late Roman Empire and seamlessly flows into the Middle Ages, so seamlessly that I didn't even realize the "introduction" had ended and that I was now into the Middle Ages. I was expecting it just to start abruptly like most history books, but Cantor spends the first 4-5 chapters developing the background from which the Middle Ages sprung. It makes it clear how hard it is to define the beginning of the Middle Ages (like almost any age of history).

Cantor's style of writing tends to use long, run-on sentences and many different terms for referring to the same concept or idea (have a dictionary handy!), so it sometimes requires more effort than needed to understand what he's saying. And like any historian, his own personal bias slips in at times, but I didn't find it over-bearing at all. He undoubtedly knows his stuff, but he could use an editor who could give it some cohesion via maps, a timline, and footnotes to explain concepts he often blows over. Nonetheless, I recommend this book for any newcomer to the field.

I was fortunate enough to buy this book the night before coming down with a nasty flu. I barely put it down and it made the ordeal tolerable.

This book is definitely of an introductory nature. My father, a medievalist, read it at the same time and gave it a lukewarm approval. His main complaint was that it contained too many generalizations, but admitted they are tough to avoid in this type of survey.

Now let me tell you the good part. If you know little or nothing about the middle ages and need a meaningful introduction, this is a good one. A strong point is the balance between narrative and analysis; this book tells you what happened but also why it matters. Everything is given proper context. Moreover, the book takes its title seriously; besides the standard discussion of political events, it describes the evolution of society, economy, and philosophy, key ingredients for understanding what a civilization was like. Cantor is accessible to a wide audience. For example, he gives short summaries of both Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies to help the reader better understand some of the intellectual debates of the times.

I have a minor complaint with the organization of the book, which is more topical than chronological. Although this choice certainly has its merits, it makes it a little difficult for someone unfamiliar with the storyline to associate contemporary events that are treated in different chapters. This is the only aspect of the book that is at all difficult for a newcomer and certainly not a serious problem.

The topical organization, however, impresses upon the reader the central themes of medieval history such as the rise and fall of the papacy and growth of national monarchies. Several popes, thinkers, and saints are memorably sketched and their contributions clearly stated. You will understand why Saint Benedict and his organization of monasteries is famous after reading this book.

For those who wish to delve further, a short and long bibliography are given. My only complaint is that the long bibliography contains about 150 entries without any kind of organization, so finding a book on a given time period, topic, or location requires scanning through the entire list. I did find this book interesting enough, however, to pick up one out of the bibliography that is equally good (History of Medieval Spain by O'Callaghan).

[Reviewer's background: I am a non-historian who likes to read history as a hobby. This was the first book on medieval history that I have read. The only history book with medieval content I had read previously was one world history survey (ancient to modern times) book.]

_Civilization of the Middle Ages_ has many good points, and overall I recommend it for readers with little prior background in medieval history and culture; only a couple of technical caveats prevent me from rating it higher.

The text flows well -- it's clear and easy to comprehend, and informative without being overly prosy, or laden with detail which would overwhelm a reader who is only beginning to explore the Middle Ages. Most readers should have no problem reading this book from cover to cover, enjoying and comprehending all of it, something one cannot always say about a history book. It's focused enough to have a coherent flow and structure, while still ranging wide enough to cover a number of diverse topics; the book doesn't get stuck in a rut of politics or church history or some such, the way some introductory texts do.

Unfortunately, the book is made less useful to scholars by the lack of either a bibliography or footnotes. (There is a recommended reading list, which I usually avoid, but in this case it's wonderfully detailed, and almost worth the price of the paperback edition to a beginner who wants a list of reliable sources for continuing study. But although it's a useful bonus, it doesn't make up for the lack of a bibliography.) This is clearly a book for the beginner or general reader, and one doesn't expect extensive footnotes in such a book, but one does expect to see a bibliography. As it is, the reader who wants to pursue some point of interest must begin from practically a standing start. This is a major flaw, and took about two points off of my numerical rating.

Aside from the lack of citations, I'm very pleased with this book. I feel it's a good introduction for a beginner who's interested in medieval history, and wants more than just a listing of who fought who, who won, and who was king at the time. So long as the reader keeps in mind that history books _should_ be footnoted, and should include a list of sources used, this is an excellent starting point. I found it to be about as readable as Joseph and Frances Gies' medieval books, with considerably less of the lack of specific detail which plagues the Gies' books -- the Gies' will often say that something was done in the Middle Ages, or in medieval Western Europe, or some similar broad reference, without saying specifically when or where, giving the reader the erroneous impression that medieval culture was a homogeneous monolith; Cantor does this much less frequently. Primarily because of this, I'd rate _Civilization of the Middle Ages_ a notch above the Gies' books.

Readers with a firm foundation in medieval history will likely be disappointed with this book, but such readers are not the target audience. The general reader will find the book readable and enjoyable. If the lack of citations make it less useful than it might be, this is compensated for, in my opinion, by Cantor's clear and flowing style. If all historians wrote like Cantor there'd likely be considerably more interest in the Middle Ages, and other times and places, than there is now. In my opinion this is at least as important as source citations.

I looked forward to this book when it first came out based on the author's reputation. His previous book, Inventing the Middle Ages,was great, and based on his comments of other historians, usually non-academic, believed he had high standards.

In the first edition hard cover edition, on which part of this review is based, he stated Marco Polo was from Florence and that the Arabs took the Byzantine capital. Casual readers know that Polo was from Venice and that it was the Turks who conquered Constantinople. Despite a letter to the publisher, no erata sheet or response was ever received. It is good to note that Marco Polo is now acknowledged as Venetian, and that while the Turks have not received their due, as least it reads Moslem armies.

Still, a scholar of Mr. Cantor's reputation, should have known better. Even more important, publishers have a obligation to produce erata sheets to ensure that history is as accurate as possible. (We may have different views o! f objective facts, but these two items are as factual as fallable humans can be sure of.)

In short, a readable book that can now be recommended for those who want a good, easy reading introduction. For me, the obvious errors of the first edition and lack of response to my inquiries still cause concern. Thank goodness for the internet and Amazon where these views can now be expressed instead of ignored.

This is a disappointing book. Although it does a good job detailing the general trends in medieval life and thought, it does so with such an opinionated slant as to render its insights - which are few - as being entirely negligible. One gets the feeling that one is reading about the medieval era through the lenses of an author who holds a particular understanding of liberal democracy as being the height of all human civilization. Everything then is judged in the light of now.

Cantor's favorite word for describing those whom he dislikes is "puritanical" - and this includes many of those who are considered today to have been among the greatest saints of the medieval era. In the arguments between Abelard and St. Bernard of Clairvaux, we repeatedly read that Bernard was "puritanical" because he believed that the dialectical method, if used to undermind the Church's teaching, was being used incorrectly. Perhaps Cantor is a less-than-stellar writer; perhaps the editor was simply overwhelmed by the amount of material here and did not do a good job editing. Regardless, the reading becomes tedious because it is so repetitive.

Despite the sometimes repetitive usage of the same adjectives, one does get a sense of the relationship between the Church - protrayed as being more homogenous than it actually was - and the various states. Medieval forgeries such as the Donation of Constantine are noted, as is the development of papal power in the 11th and 12th centuries. It is the 12th century that Cantor gives the single greatest amount of space to, largely because the 12th century is oftentimes considered to be the watershed between the medieval and modern eras. This is where Cantor does the best job of detailing the intellectual debates of the period, and one begins to get a glimpse of the medieval world as a world of real people who had real beliefs, real hopes and real dreams.

Cantor paints vivid pictures of medieval life, recognizing that there is much more depth and variety in the medieval world than has been noted in most Enlightenment-era and Enlightenment-dependent historiography. Basically, what we learn in elementary school about the so-called "dark ages" is really quite inaccurate! The development of French troubadours and its relation to spiritual pilgrimage - a popular feature of medieval spirituality - is quite fascinating. The development of certain forms of church architecture - especially in the 12th century - is equally enthralling.

Cantor notes that the medieval world was in eclipse towards the end of the 13th century. St. Thomas Aquinas stands as the apex, in many ways, of medieval thought as he sought to harmonize - oftentimes controversially - the knowledge of the day with the teachings of the Church. Cantor notes a bit about the 14th and 15th century, particularly as they relate to the medieval world. But, one gets a sense that after Aquinas, the medieval world really ceased to exist and although certain medieval problems - intellectually and theologically, technologically and scientifically - would continue to be worked out over succeeding centuries, the centuries between Aquinas the the Reformation are really best understood as chaotic and intervening as the sun set upon one world and dawned upon another: the modern.

This is a book written for the general reader rather than as a text for class or a book for scholars. The style is not hard to read, but its lack of footnotes will frustrate the more serious student of the subject. That being said this book will surprise many people for whom this period is a blank slate on the wall under the heading "The Dark Ages". It turns out they were not so dark, as bleak, or as uniform as the popular notion would have it. They did develop technologies and their society was shaped by their development. They just don't look like innovations to us.

Professor Cantor takes us through the changes in their society, their revolutions, the inevitable Crusades, and then the foundations of the Renaissance. Yes, the Roman Catholic Church had a great deal of power during this period, but it was far from the only world power and was itself influenced by the wars and politics of those centuries.

The book has a couple of pages of movies that deal with this period along with the author's interesting comments. There is also and index. The book also has a list for further reading, which is very helpful. Too bad there are no footnotes. I know how much editors of popular books hate them because they drive down sales. However, this really is not a glib popular history. It is for the general reader, yes, but a person sitting down to read about this period is already taking a serious intellectual step, why not help him or her get to other source material for the points the author makes.

Professor Cantor provides the definitive short history of the Middle Ages. His analysis explains a civilization without crushing the reader with a myriad of esoteric facts. If you want to understand that not-so-distant age, this is the book to buy.

First, I should mention that I have read many, many books on the middle ages and wasn't sure whether "one more" was strictly speaking necessary. I was prepared to find this book "more of the same". Thus I was delightfully surprised to find that the author takes a somewhat different tact on this book than most. Indeed the clue is in the title, with the word "Civilization" working almost as well as a verb as a noun. This book's theme is less on the details of "what happened" during the middle ages, and more on the various religious, social and political forces that shaped the emergence of a disctinct European culture during the middle ages.

To the sure, this book has some flaws. Like one other reviewer, the author's discussion of the Romans in particular seems quite flawed. At times the author also seems to contradict himself, particularly when discussing the 13th century. Specifically, the author notes several times that few major wars occured during this century, then later details various struggles between the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy, Charles of Anjou's invasion of Sicily and Simon de Montford's rebellions in England. Sure, compared to the 100 years war that emerged in the 14th century, things were *relatively* (emphasis on relatively) peaceful, but Cantor's claim that "no major wars" took place in the 13th century seems a bit of a stretch.

That out of the way, where this book really shines is in its discussions of religion and politics and how these forces, sometimes struggling against each other in the realm of monarchy versus the papacy, shaped European society. This book presents this material in much greater depth and sophistication than most texts of the middle ages, and thus presents some "new material" even for those who are well read on the middle ages. The book does so by sacrificing in the areas of military history and on personal biographies...you don't get much of a feel for the individual players and armed conflict seems more of an afterthought in this text.

It should be noted that this book is mostly likely to appeal to those who have already read up on the middle ages. It is not an "introduction to the middle ages". Also, those who think "history is boring" are not likely to be dissuaded from that opinion. I don't mean to suggest that this book is boring, but rather that it focuses on the sort of material that people who dislike history tend to dislike about it the most...economics, culture, politics...and avoids the main issue that can sometimes intrest non-history-loving people...namely military conflicts.

As such, I'd recommend this book primarily for serious history lovers.