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Title: The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History by Norman F. Cantor ISBN: 0-06-092553-1 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 August, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.1 (30 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Civilization of the Middle Ages
Comment: If I may be pardoned for beginning with a banality, the troublewith general history books is that they sacrifice detail forreadability. However, Prof. Cantor generally avoids the troubles inherent in such an undertaking. His strong grasp of the philosophical problems of the time make for very entertaining reading. If you're looking for a great deal of material dealing with economic or social problems it might be wiser to look elsewhere.
The work mainly deals with the struggle to define the place of the church within the state. IMHO, Prof. Cantor is at his best when discussing the implosion created by the rediscovery of Aristotle and the efforts of a young Europe to integrate his work into their Judeo-Platonic worldview.
It is a very readable book but I felt that the last two chapters (which had been almost entirely reworked for this edition) lacked a taut structure. They read like they were written because the period had to be covered in a work such as this. The professor's focus on themes rather than chronology resulted in what I felt was a very scattered second to last chapter. And one last quibble: no maps. Those being introduced to the Middle Ages are not always going to know the location of Alsace or Flanders or Cordoba.
All that said, I do recommend the book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Introduction to the Middle Ages, but ....
Comment: 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.
Rating: 3
Summary: Needed a grad student to edit his MS!
Comment: Haven't even READ the book yet, but the errors fairly drop from Cantor's pen ... Adrianople was "the first defeat of Rome by Germans"? What about Arminius's taking out 3 legions in A.D. 9? The Arabs took Constantinople? That would've surprised all the Turks who were there! And it's not "just" military history. A medievalist who can write that in Jesus "the Holy Spirit assumed form" is woefully confused about Christian dogma, which (however vain a discipline) is kind of important in writing about "the civilization of the Middle Ages."
A little Googling yields several examples from other books of Cantor's carelessness with facts. I don't mean to impugn his grasp of his specialty, but don't trust any "fact" in his book unless you find it confirmed elsewhere.
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Title: Inventing the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor ISBN: 0688123023 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 01 February, 1993 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Medieval Reader by Norman F. Cantor ISBN: 0062720554 Publisher: HarperResource Pub. Date: 05 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Antiquity: The Civilization of the Ancient World by Norman Cantor ISBN: 0060174099 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century by Barbara Tuchman ISBN: 0345349571 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 1979 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor ISBN: 0670100110 Publisher: Viking Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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