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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good introduction for beginners, but lacking citations., 26 Nov 1996
By A Customer
_Civilization of the Middle Ages_ has many good points, and
overall I recommend it for readers with little prior
background in medieval history and culture; only a couple of
technical caveats prevent me from rating it higher.
The text flows well -- it's clear and easy to comprehend,
and informative without being overly prosy, or laden with
detail which would overwhelm a reader who is only beginning
to explore the Middle Ages. Most readers should have no
problem reading this book from cover to cover, enjoying and
comprehending all of it, something one
cannot always say about a history book. It's focused enough
to have a coherent flow and structure, while still ranging
wide enough to cover a number of diverse topics; the book
doesn't get stuck in a rut of politics or church history or
some such, the way some introductory texts do.
Unfortunately, the book is made less useful to scholars by
the lack of either a bibliography or footnotes. (There is a
recommended reading list, which I usually avoid, but in this
case it's wonderfully detailed, and almost worth the price
of the
paperback edition to a beginner who wants a list of reliable
sources for continuing study. But although it's a useful
bonus, it doesn't make up for the lack of a bibliography.)
This is clearly a book for the beginner or general reader,
and one doesn't expect extensive footnotes in such
a book, but one does expect to see a bibliography. As it
is, the reader who wants to pursue some point of
interest must begin from practically a standing start. This
is a major flaw, and took about two points off of my
numerical rating.
Aside from the lack of citations, I'm very pleased with this
book. I feel it's a good introduction for a beginner who's
interested in medieval history, and wants more than just a
listing of who fought who, who won, and who was king at the
time. So long as the reader keeps in mind that history
books _should_ be footnoted, and should include a list of sources
used, this is an excellent starting point. I found it to be
about as readable as Joseph and Frances Gies' medieval
books, with considerably less of the lack of specific detail
which plagues the Gies' books -- the Gies' will often say
that something
was done in the Middle Ages, or in medieval Western Europe,
or some similar broad reference, without saying specifically
when or where, giving the reader the erroneous impression
that medieval culture was a homogeneous monolith; Cantor
does this much less frequently. Primarily because of this,
I'd rate _Civilization of the Middle Ages_ a notch above the
Gies' books.
Readers with a firm foundation in medieval history will
likely be disappointed with this book, but such readers are
not the target audience. The general reader will find the
book readable and enjoyable. If the lack of citations make
it less useful than it might be, this is compensated for, in
my opinion, by Cantor's clear and flowing style. If all
historians wrote like Cantor there'd likely be considerably
more interest in the Middle Ages, and other times and places,
than there is now. In my opinion this is at least as
important as source citations.
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by Colin McEvedy
by Henrietta Leyser
by Andrew Jotischky
by Morris Bishop
