THE MIDDLE AGES

A scholarly but involving history of the Middle Ages, roughly covering the 5th—15th centuries. Hanawalt aptly sets the stage with an introduction that outlines the importance of “emperors, kings, battles, crusades, feudalism, manorialism, the rise of towns, the growth of parliament, universities, and the Church,” as well as “how average people experienced life in the Middle Ages.” She discusses the three prominent cultures (Roman, Christian, German), the first autobiography ever written (Augustine’s Confessions), three empires (Carolingian, Byzantine, Arab), architecture, ideas, monastic orders, bubonic plague, Magna Carta, Abelard’s romance with Heloise, as well as various communities and their members. Richly illustrated with black-and-white medieval maps, drawings, illustrations, photographs, documents, and artifacts, this impressive history captures an era—its glory and its breadth. (chronology, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12+)