Rate this book

Forge Of Christendom (2008)

by Tom Holland(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

038553020X (ISBN13: 9780385530200)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

review 1: The time period is interesting and Holland illuminates it well.I like Holland's writing - accessible history based on the narrative. Focusing on certain figures and running for a chapter or two brings things to life and perspective. Sometimes this unavoidably hits 'school history book' though with a few sections where you can practically hear him say "Ok class, you just have to get through the names and dates in the next few pages as you'll need them for the next great fun set of anecdotes". But given the scope of a sweep across the entire European/Middle Eastern world 900-1100 he does an admirable job in covering the key events and people from Vikings, Normans, Caliphs, Byzantines and Popes. I enjoyed the forays into Germany (an area I knew nothing about at all), but ... morefound these a bit harder going. It's maybe one of these things but if you've even a back of a stamp knowledge of the events, you may get more from this than approaching them for the first time.
review 2: Holland picks interesting moments in history and writes accessible accounts of related events. This time, he focused on the turn of the previous millennium where, indeed in similar fashion as a few years back, many were expecting the end of times and the appearance of the antichrist. Interesting though these times were, Holland's time frame covering some 200 years does feature too many players to comfortable and constantly follow the whole tale. What Holland does show is that in contradiction to the generally accepted implicit assumption that the Middle Ages must have had something of a beginning and an end, there was in fact a gradual decline. What set the stage for gradual change for the better was that in the area influenced by papal Rome, as opposed to Byzantine quarters, the sea change was the result in separating the powers and spheres of influence of the worldly Caesars and the popes, effectively introducing the seeds for the separation of church and state, much more prominent in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe. less

Download links for: Forge of Christendom

Advertising