The 10th Century In Western Europe

A narrative history of the origins of Western civilization argues that Europe was transformed in the tenth century from a continent rife with violence and ignorance to a continent on the rise.

Capturing the vigor and vitality of medieval times in an interesting and engaging manner, Strayer gives a vivid interpretation of the significance of medieval civilization, not of medieval history. This essay focuses on two topics: First is the organization on a specialization of society and the cooperation of its people. Second is their shared ideals and beliefs. This important work illuminates how the intriguing activities of the Middle Ages have nourished our present-day civilization.

11 essays from both historians and archaeologists achieve a re-reading of a the tenth century, which has been central to the interpretation of the historical development of Europe over the past decade.

First ed. by S. Painter published in 1953 under title: A history of the Middle Ages, 284-1500. Includes bibliographical references and index.

Twenty-three contributions by leading archaeologists from across Europe explore the varied forms, functions and significances of fortified settlements in the 8th to 10th centuries AD. These could be sites of strongly martial nature, upland retreats, monastic enclosures, rural seats, island bases, or urban nuclei. But they were all expressions of control - of states, frontiers, lands, materials, communities - and ones defined by walls, ramparts or enclosing banks. Papers run from Irish cashels to Welsh and Pictish strongholds, Saxon burhs, Viking fortresses, Byzantine castra, Carolingian creations, Venetian barricades, Slavic strongholds, and Bulgarian central places, and coverage extends fully from north-west Europe, to central Europe, the northern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Strongly informed by recent fieldwork and excavations, but drawing also where available on the documentary record, this important collection provides fully up-to-date reviews and analyses of the archaeologies of the distinctive settlement forms that characterized Europe in the Early Middle Ages.

This comprehensive survey of the history of the Church in Western Europe, as institution and spiritual body.