Not only an engrossing read about the distant past, both informative
and entertaining, but also a profoundly thought-provoking view of our
not-really-so-'new' present . . . All medieval history is here,
beautifully narrated . . . The vision takes in whole imperial landscapes
but also makes room for intimate portraits of key individuals, and even
some poems.--Wall Street Journal****
A lively history . . . [Jones] has managed to touch every major topic.
As each piece of the puzzle is placed into position, the modern world
gradually comes into view . . . Powers and Thrones provides the reader
with a framework for understanding a complicated subject, and it tells
the story of an essential era of world history with skill and
style.*--The New York Times
*
The New York Times bestselling author returns with an epic history
of the medieval world--a rich and complicated reappraisal of an era
whose legacy and lessons we are still living with today.
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and
lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a
thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative
bursting with big names--from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the
Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine--Dan Jones charges through the
history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes readers on a
journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late
Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West, and
culminates in the first European voyages to the Americas.
The medieval world was forged by the big forces that still occupy us
today: climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, and
technological revolutions. This was the time when the great European
nationalities were formed; when the basic Western systems of law and
governance were codified; when the Christian Churches matured as both
powerful institutions and the regulators of Western public morality; and
when art, architecture, philosophical inquiry and scientific invention
went through periods of massive, revolutionary change.
The West was rebuilt on the ruins of an empire and emerged from a state
of crisis and collapse to dominate the world. Every sphere of human life
and activity was transformed in the thousand years covered by Powers
and Thrones. As we face a critical turning point in our own millennium,
Dan Jones shows that how we got here matters more than ever.
