Carlos 's Updates

"“The book you are about to read tells the story of the Middle Ages. It is a big book, because that is a big task. We are going to sweep across continents and centuries, often at a breakneck pace. We are going to meet hundreds of men and women, from Attila the Hun to Joan of Arc. And we are going to dive headlong into at least a dozen fields of history – from war and law to art and literature. I am going to ask – and I hope to answer – some big questions: What happened in the Middle Ages? Who ruled? What did power look like? What were the big forces that shaped peoples’ lives? And how (if at all) did the Middle Ages shape the world we know today…”
- Dan Jones, Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages occupies an interesting place in the history of the western world. Sandwiched between the half-mythological glories of classical antiquity, and the vivid artistic and scientific expressions of the Renaissance, it can seem – by contrast – a rather grim place to visit: a gloomy milieu of toiling peasants in their cheerless hovels, and bickering nobles in drafty stone castles. It was a time – to steal a phrase from Hobbes – when life tended to be nasty, brutish, and short.

I hasten to add, however, that what I know about the Middle Ages can fit into the codpiece I once wore to a Ren Fair in Kansas City. It is an incomplete picture cobbled together from a few European castle tours, a half dozen stray books, and numerous movies, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Thus, my conception of this era is necessarily far from complete.

What I required was a mile-high overview that threaded the line between serious and not-too-serious, and that simplified things without dumbing them down.

That’s the reason why I turned to Dan Jones’s Powers and Thrones.

***

Jones is a model of the modern popular historian. He has a strong internet presence; he makes analogies to sports, especially the game the world sensibly refers to as football, and which Americans call soccer; and he seems genuinely passionate about getting paid to do what he clearly loves. The archetypal academic historian is writing for his colleagues. Jones is writing for everyone. He has an eagerness to share akin to a kindergartener at show-and-tell.

Jones’s willingness – nay, his intent – to appeal to a broad audience is a great thing in general. Yet in the area of the Middle Ages, it is especially important. That’s because medievalists are a notoriously unfun bunch, despite making a living dreaming of the past. For example, well-respected author-historians such as Barbara Tuchman and William Manchester have been slammed for encroaching on this territory, and for daring to compare then to now. There is an apparent belief in this field of study that interpreting the Middle Ages is a matter of life and death, and that everyone must act accordingly.

In Powers and Thrones, Jones wants things to be fun. Or at least as fun as anything involving the Black Death can be.

***

Not only is Jones accessible, but he has a marvelously methodical, building-block approach. This is important, because he’s trying to digest a lot in Powers and Thrones. More specifically, the tale begins in 410 AD, and ends in 1527 AD, which is a solid eleven centuries of human life.

Jones divides Powers and Thrones into four sections, each one corresponding to a specific date range. However, he is not telling a single, chronological narrative. Rather, the chapters within each section are thematic, covering topics such as knights, crusaders, merchants, and scholars. Within these chapters, Jones highlights individual characters, important events, technological advances, cultural trends, and architecture.

With so much to survey, there are inevitable highs and lows, though everything is fascinating in its own right. For instance, I found myself surprisingly engaged in Jones’s discussion on monasteries.

***

Given the scope of Powers and Thrones, Jones has to make inevitable tradeoffs in order to deliver a reasonably-sized single volume. This results in a lack of depth in some areas, and the elision of others completely.

For a starter book, though, that’s okay. In choosing this, I wanted to avoid getting lost in minutiae, or discovering that I required prerequisites to understand what was going on. From the beginning, which includes a long exploration of the fall of Rome, Jones proves an attentive tour guide.

It should also be noted that despite an acknowledged bias in favor of western Europe, Jones makes a concerted effort to provide a global snapshot. To that end, there is a chapter on the Arab conquests of the 600s, and the brief-but-spectacular emergence of the Mongol Empire in the 1200s.

***

The phrase “popular historian” is often used as a thinly veiled insult, or as a synonym for unseriousness. That’s not the impression I want to leave. Though he is often in front of a camera – especially on YouTube or Britain’s Channel 5 – and has also been known to be photographed looking self-consciously pensive while wearing a leather jacket, Jones is not an unlettered dilettante. This period of history is his thing, and he provides a long list of primary sources to back that up.

***

Whenever I branch off into a new area of history, I try to start with the biggest of big pictures. While this seems obvious, there have been times when I tried to jump into the deep end, and ended up hopelessly confused. The first time I tackled the French Revolution, for instance, the titles I chose made me feel like I was reading something that had been translated from Greek to Latin to English.

As I hoped, Powers and Thrones gave me the lay of the land. Jones did not knock me over with his prose or insights, but he provides a nice jumping-off point for further exploration. And not for nothing, he made the Middle Ages a pleasant place to visit vicariously, if not in reality."