Setting people straight on the subject of the Middle Ages is
one of my favorite hobbies. In our world today, all forms of entertainment and
media almost universally paint the medieval period with the same bleak,
oppressive palette.
If you’d like to be
set straight on some common misconceptions, you can take my Medieval Quiz
here.
A couple weeks ago I was practicing my aforementioned hobby
in one of my classes, and my students asked me where to go to find good
resources on the Middle Ages – that is, the real Middle Ages.
A good starter book for revising your history is Those Terrible
Middle Ages! Debunking the Myths by Régine Pernoud. Pernoud was a curator at
two museums and at the French National Archives. As such, she had access to
tons of primary sources and wrote dozens of books, only a few of which are
available in English. In this book, Pernoud sets about to rehabilitate the
reputation of the Middle Ages. The book is informal, written to a general audience.
It is primarily franco-centric, but useful to readers interested in the
medievals generally.
When you’re ready to move on from that, you should turn your
attention to Frances and Joseph Gies who were a wife and husband medievalist
team. Together they wrote a number of books on the Middle Ages suitable for
scholars or laymen. The great benefits of their books are their readability,
their great bibliographies, and their close fidelity to primary sources. More
than anything, these books will bring you right into the day-to-day life of the Middle Ages.
If you want to understand the thrust and scope of
the Middle Ages, you need to read G.K. Chesterton’s A Short History of England.
A warning ahead of time, though: this is not a history book. If you don’t have
a good outline of the history of England
in your head, this book will make no sense to you. Chesterton is not presenting
history, but a certain theory of history that encompasses and exhibits the spirit
of the medieval period. He references historical events that he assumes his
audience will know. The first time I read this book, I was completely lost. Two
years and a number of history books later, I reread it and found it incredibly
insightful.
Finally, if you’re one of those people who just don’t have
time to read, you can always have Middle Ages misconceptions debunked by none
other than Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. In Terry Jones’ Medieval Lives *,
Jones takes a look at the Middle Ages in a chatty humorous way that is actually
very educational. His impetus for the series, he says, was to get back at the
Renaissance. “It's just that I'm sick of the way people's eyes light up when
they start talking about the Renaissance. I'm sick of the way art critics tend
to say: 'Aaaah! The Renaissance!' with that deeply self-satisfied air of
someone who is at last getting down to the Real Thing. And I'm sick to death of
that ridiculous assumption that that before the Renaissance human beings had no
sense of individuality.” When I last checked all the episodes are available on
Youtube. Episodes 1 and 6 are the most informative in my opinion.
So there you go. That’s probably more info than you can
easily deal with at one time. Have fun perusing and watching. And remember, as
I always tell my students, NO ONE IN THE MIDDLE AGES BELIEVED THE EARTH WAS
FLAT!
*[Parental Discretion Advised for some of these episodes. It's British television after all.]
Comments
...I still prefer having electricity. But not even the Renaissance had that. XD
Another good one would be "How The Irish Saved Civilization", since the majority of that is about the Christian Celts during the Middle Ages doing things like "writing books" and "illuminating manuscripts that will be turned into smashing, if somewhat psychedelic, animated films about monks and the Fair Folk".
Also, The Secret of Kells ftw!
I am on my way to England as well and am in need of a one book, solid history of Great Britain from the beginning until now. Hope had mentioned you recommended this prior to Chesterton's. Any suggestions?
Many thanks-
Deirdre Salmon
Salmond@veritaspress.com
It's not an academic book in the world, and it was written for kids, but I don't think you can do better than "Our Island Story" by H.E. Marshall. It's an easy and quick read. It's also available for free online. It gets you from the legends of Brutus all the way up through the Victorian period when the book was written. There are other overviews, of course. I imagine you could get a good overview from the Western Civ textbook that goes with the Omnibus program, but it won't be nearly as fun. Or you could go for Winston Churchill's massive 3 volume History of the English People, but I don't think that really qualifies as summer reading. :) Have a fun trip!