Western Europe in the Middle Ages: A Short History

I've been looking around for a decent introduction to Medieval history for quite some time, and this is by far the best that I have yet encountered. Strayer is an excellent writer, and a great historian. I was worried that a book this short could not possibly cover all of the important material of the Middle Ages, but Strayer somehow does just that. When I first picked up the book, I thought it was much shorter than it was, but I soon discovered that this impression was largely due to the incredibly thin paper my copy (third edition) was printed on, so it's actually much longer than it looks. Even so, two hundred pages is remarkably short for a history of the Middle Ages, but Strayer manages to cram an incredible amount of information in a small amount of space. He is able to do this for two reasons. First, he is extraordinarily good at discerning what information needs to be included and, more importantly, excluded. The major flaw in most of the other Medieval history books I've read has been a tendency to get bogged down in details. Strayer does not do that at all: he gets right to the point, explains why what he is discussing is important, and moves on. Second, he is a very, very clear writer. Many historians are understandably not gifted writers; they are researchers first, and only incidentally writers. As a result, they have to spend more space explaining what they mean. Strayer does not have this problem. This is by far the most readable Medieval history book I've ever come across. It was so well written that I assumed that Strayer was a writer who happened to write about history, but I looked him up and this book was shortened version of a Medieval history textbook he wrote while teaching history at Princeton. I would definitely recommend reading this book if you get the chance. Sure, he doesn't go into a lot of detail, and the shortness of the book means that some things get left out. English readers may notice that the name of Alfred does not even make an appearance, French readers may wonder why the name of Godfrey is never seen, German readers will no doubt notice that Strayer never mentions the Teutonic Knights, Italian readers may wonder why Cesare Borgia never makes an appearance, and Spanish readers will marvel at the fact that Strayer does not seem to think that Spain was a part of Western Europe (or perhaps he just thought nothing important was happening there?). Strayer certainly leaves a lot out, but he gets the vast majority of the most important things in, and he is great at seeing and pointing out the significance of individual things both for the period of the Middle Ages and also for the present day. Strayer is adept at connecting the dots between events and tendencies occurring in the Middle Ages and later developments in later centuries and our own time. In short, it may not be perfect, and I wish it were a little longer, but it is certainly worth reading. I've not yet come across any better introdu

In this clearly written history of this era, Princeton University professor Joseph R. Strayer tells us that "as the Roman Empire in the West slowly collapsed, the Christian Church emerged as the one stable instituion among the ruins." It is during this period that the university system was created. The church placed a value on learning. Strayer has done his research and he provides insights into the life and times of the people covered in this book. I give it a high recommendation.

I cannot recommend this book more highly. In just 200 pages, Strayer provides an excellent summary and analysis of the history of western Europe during the Middle Ages. Unlike many other books on history, Strayer is very adept at not only presenting the facts, sequence of events, etc., but also at describing the key trends and patterns of history, and analyzing and interpreting what happened. Furthermore, he ties the patterns and trends of the history of the Middle Ages to later history, including our own times. His writing style is very clear, organized, and fluent. There is also a very useful bibliography included. My own criticism of the book is that I would have liked a few maps included. Nevertheless, this is a very, very excellent book.