Powers and Thrones
A New History of the Middle Ages
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Narrated by:
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Dan Jones
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By:
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Dan Jones
About this listen
From the best-selling author of The Templars, Dan Jones' epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built.
Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones' trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive Western powers thrived by attracting - or stealing - the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations - Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople - and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women.
This is a book written about - and for - an age of profound change, and it asks the biggest questions about the West both then and now. Where did we come from? What made us? Where do we go from here?
©2021 Dan Jones (P)2021 W F HowesListeners also enjoyed...
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Get the video version
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Magna Carta is revered around the world as the founding document of Western liberty. Its principles - even its language - can be found in our Bill of Rights and in the Constitution. But what was this strange document and how did it gain such legendary status? Dan Jones takes us back to the turbulent year of 1215, when, beset by foreign crises and cornered by a growing domestic rebellion, King John reluctantly agreed to fix his seal to a document that would change the course of history.
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Complicated period of history made accessible
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What listeners say about Powers and Thrones
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-21-22
Author should focus on his field, history...
The historical analysis is quite compelling, especially things often left out of other history books.
But the comments on modern times, is sometimes insultingly, poorly handled.
Casually calling people, concerned about the integration of Muslims into the Christian world "far right", is not, and never will be an appropriate response.
On the other hand, if by "far right" the author means genuinely aggressive, and genuinely hateful groups on both the Muslim and Christian side, who both derive large parts of their identity from a time in history, then there is some merit.
But the nature of the book, and the often reckless use of words in our modern society, leaves a lot room for misinterpretation.
Something that should be clear to any student of history though, is that cultural, and religious integration is an exceedingly difficult task, often with horrendous consequences. And the glibness of the "far left" should be of much more concern.
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- Michael van der Galien
- 01-25-23
thrilling
By far the best comprehensive history of the Middle Ages. An amazing accomplishment from this distinguished author.
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