The Middle Ages

Morris Bishop's highly readable survey of The Middle Ages condenses a thousand years of history often dismissed for its darkness, violence, and superstition and incorrectly portrayed as an unfortunate chasm between the glory of ancient times and the Renaissance that drew on a renewed interest in the classics. 

Bishop's survey, unlike Asimov's histories, covers the period thematically rather than chronologically. For a span of time that includes the Dark Ages when much of what was written was either lost or barely preserved, this approach works rather well. Ten chapters cover familiar medieval topics such as Knights in Battle, The Noble's Life, An Age of Faith, and The Artists' Legacy. Less familiar topics (to me, anyway) included Towns and Trade, The Life of Labor, and The Life of Thought. 

Perhaps some of the most surprising history of the Middle Ages is the development of capitalism and commerce and the rise of towns, which greatly promoted the common welfare, including the privilege of self-government purchased from money-strapped nobles. Trade guilds are early unions. Towns offered freedom to serfs in exchange for their employment. 

Bishop declares that the Middle Ages ended by bequeathing modern times more than it had received itself, a rather astonishing claim unless the reader allows for his others: that the Middle Ages accomplished much in terms of art, architecture, literature, learning, and wisdom.