Medieval Horizons

Why the Middle Ages Matter

De: Ian Mortimer

Narrado por: Ian Mortimer

The essential introduction to the Middle Ages by the bestselling author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

We tend to think of the Middle Ages as a dark, backward, and unchanging time characterized by violence, ignorance, and superstition. By contrast, we believe progress arose from science and technological innovation, and that inventions of recent centuries created the modern world.

We couldn't be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating book, people's horizons-their knowledge, experience, and understanding of the world-expanded dramatically. Life was utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, marking the transition from a warrior-led society to that of Shakespeare.

Just as The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the era as a whole. It outlines the enormous cultural changes that took place—from literacy to living standards, inequality, and even the developing sense of self—thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as a revolutionary age of fundamental importance in the development of the Western world.

©2023 Ian Mortimer (P)2024 Tantor

Changing perspectives

I was aware of most of the 'facts' presented here, such as the 'loss' of glassmaking knowledge in Europe with the fall of the Western Roman Empire, But not quite the corollary to that, the loss of mirrors. And how that had a profound impact, and the importance of their rediscovery. Definitely interesting and worth the time to get a new understanding of the not so dark 'dark ages.'

Outstanding Scholarship provides New Understandings of centuries, important to understanding our own time.

This is truly an example of how informative scholarship can completely alter prior understanding of an historical period. The reader makes his own writing engaging. The strength of his argument coupled with the bountiful support from reliable sources makes his position utterly breathtaking. Highly recommended both for young students and established historians.

Fills iwith a different perserspective

I have been reading about Medieval times since I was a child and have always found it fascinating. This book offers a different perspective from the now-dated "Dark Ages" histories I read while young, and is devoid of the concentration on bishops, knights, and nobles. I love historical novels of the period (not bodice-ripping romance novels), but this book grounded me in the reality. My perspective of the Medieval age has been updated.

The metaphor of the horizon

The narration is superb - passionate and clear, engaging the listener. The approach is interesting as much for the intent as the realization of it: a social history that takes the period seriously and yet despite this sometimes cannot resist reading the contemporary into the past. For the general reader, I would hope they explore further; for the more specialized reader, it presents interesting ways of seeing the Middle Ages, but remains in some ways too chained to contemporary ways of seeing humanity. The importation and generalization of secular/sacred and the literacy devoted to one writer were annoying to one with a deep knowledge of the period and of its theology. Nevertheless I applaud the effort and the purpose and the passion of the writer.

relavence

a very convincing argument for the dependence of the modern world on the accomplishments of the medieval.

New information

I liked learning about people. People are timeless. They are very different considering their context but as humans they are always brilliant, stupid, plain, and extraordinary… and much more. I will listen to this book many times.

Altered my perception of History

An excellent look at how changes in the past lead to modern equipment, philosophies, etc. The book is loaded with astounding things done in the Middle Ages that the average man could not duplicate today without computers, construction equipment, scientific instruments, etc. Something as overlooked as the re-discover of the mirror provided a new look at self, both externally and internally. This led to amazing advancements of individuality and freedom. The author did a fantastic job of covering a large swath of history in a previously unseen way. I highly recommend the book.

Eye opening

Superb reading of one of the most useful histories I’ve come across. The Mark of a master teacher is that the student becomes hungry to learn more, to apply the lessons learned, to pass on useful knowledge. This book accomplishes just that. I look forward to re-reading this!

Broad and detailed

I’m always looking for books that cover a “why” from history and this does it well. Still enough details to make it stick, while sweeping enough to prevent depression from how miserable life used to be.

The empathy this book created for the mindset of a medieval person.

Well, at some point, the read aloud narrative of this book did get bogged down in extreme levels of detail, overall it was a compelling listen that brought the reader to understand the horizon as it existed in the middle ages, and especially how that horizon kept expanding century after century asEurope developed.