Sandy Bardsley is Professor of History at Moravian College.

Judith M. Bennett is Professor of History Emerita at University of Southern California and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• Abbreviations and Conventions


• Biographical Sketches


• Medieval Myths


• Maps


• List of Figures


• Preface


• Introduction


• Chapter 1: Romans, Christians, and Barbarians


• The Early Middle Ages


• The Roman Peace (31 B.C.E.-180 C.E.) and After


• Christianity


• Barbarians and the Western Empire


• The Decline of the Western Empire


• Chapter 2: Early Western Christendom, c. 500-700


• Early Medieval Society


• Early Medieval Politics


• The Early Medieval Church


• Intellectual Life


• Chapter 3: The Byzantine Empire, c. 500-1000


• Byzantine Government


• Byzantine Christianity


• Byzantine Economy and Society


• Byzantine Culture


• The Course of Byzantine Politics


• Chapter 4: The Islamic Empires, c. 571-1100


• Arabia and Muhammad (c. 571-632)


• The Islamic Empires


• Islamic Culture


• Religion, Race, and Difference


• Chapter 5: Carolingian Europe, c. 700-850


• The Early Carolingians


• Charlemagne (r. 768-814)


• Intellectual Revival


• Chapter 6: Division, Invasion, and Reorganization, c. 800-1000


• Division: The Later Carolingians


• Invasion: Muslims, Magyars, and Vikings


• Reorganization: New Polities


• Chapter 7: Economic Takeoff and Social Change in the Countryside, c. 1000-1300


• The Central Middle Ages


• Agricultural Revolution


• Rural Society


• Chapter 8: Economic Takeoff and Social Change in Town and Court, c. 1000-1300


• The Commercial Revolution


• Urban Society


• The Landholding Aristocracy


• Feudal Society


• The Expansion of Education


• Chapter 9: Popes and the Papacy, c. 1000-1300


• Popes, Clergy, and Laity, c. 1000-1122


• The Reformed Papacy and its Church


• Innocent III and the Papacy Ascendant


• The Papacy after 1250


• Chapter 10: New Paths to God, c. 1000-1300


• Judaism


• The Evolution of Christian Piety


• Orthodoxy and Heresy


• Changes in Monastic Life


• The Mendicant Orders


• Chapter 11: Conquests, Crusades, and Persecutions, c. 1100-1300


• Conquests and Territorial Expansion


• Crusades


• Persecutions


• Conclusion


• Chapter 12: States Made and Unmade, c. 1000-1300


• The Holy Roman Empire: Disintegration


• England: King and Parliament


• France: The Monarchy Triumphant


• Iberia: Some Consolidation


• The States of Northern and Eastern Europe


• Chapter 13: Literature, Art, and Thought, c. 1000-1300


• Byzantine and Islamic Influences


• Intellectual Trends


• Literature


• Architecture and Sculpture


• Chapter 14: Famine, Plague, and Recovery, c. 1300-1500


• The Later Middle Ages


• Economic Woes and Demographic Crisis (1300-1350)


• Adjustment and Recovery (1350-1500)


• Late Medieval Christianity


• Chapter 15: Toward the Sovereign State, c. 1300-1500


• England, France, and the Hundred Years' War


• England: Parliament, Civil War, and Tudor Monarchy


• France: Constitutional Crisis, War, and the Spider King


• The Iberian States: Consolidation through Homogenization


• New Powers on the European Periphery


• The Heritage of the Holy Roman Empire


• Chapter 16: Diversity and Dynamism in Culture, c. 1300-1500


• Literacy and Vernacular Languages


• Humanist Education


• Literature


• Art and Architecture


• Philosophy


• Political Thought


• Glossary


• Photo Credits


• Index