The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West (repost)
The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West By Tom Holland
Publisher: Do.uble.day 2009 | 512 Pages | ISBN: 0385520581 | EPUB | 10 MB
Publisher: Do.uble.day 2009 | 512 Pages | ISBN: 0385520581 | EPUB | 10 MB
If Y2K proved anticlimactic, the Y1K crisis—apocalyptic expectations surrounding the year 1000—had a lasting impact, argues this far-ranging, over-reaching history of medieval Europe. Holland (Persian Fire) surveys the two and a half centuries between the fragmenting of Charlemagne's empire and the First Crusade, visiting milestones like the Norman conquest of England along with lesser invasions, raids, feudal vendettas, kidnappings and pope vs. antipope squabbles. He discerns movement amid the tumult and slaughter, as Catholic Europe went from anxious beleaguerment by the barbarians coming from every direction to confident expansionism. Holland's thesis that it was the disappointment of millennial hopes that gave Christendom its new focus on worldly progress is weakly supported; he has a hard time showing that anyone besides churchmen thought about the approaching millennium.