Constantine’s presence at the Council of Nicaea, the causes of the Hundred Years’ War, the controversial writings of William of Ockham: if these historical gems of Western civilization have lost their luster (and relevance) to ourselves and our contemporaries, perhaps it is time that we all slow down to remember our shared history.
The beauty of medieval history recently caught my attention, slowing me down, through a recent job offer. Having recently earned a graduate degree in philosophy, I decided to pursue a vocation in teaching (typical story for a humanities graduate!). While I intended to teach music (my undergraduate degree was in piano performance), religion (I went to a Catholic seminary) and philosophy (I compromised my eyesight while reading Kant’s massive Critiques), the headmaster at my new job asked me to teach medieval history. “Medieval history?!” I said in surprise. I haven’t touched the topic since my high school AP history exam. Six years out of high school, I now found myself in desperate need of a crash course in medieval history. Hollister’s A Short History (8th ed.) was a God-send.
A textbook, disguised as a thin paperback, A Short History covers the history of Europe from the Roman Empire in AD 200 to the late medieval period of AD 1500 – all within 375 pages, peppered with useful maps, timelines and photographs. It is organized into three parts: part one is a chronological narration of the early medieval period; part two describes the high middle ages through topical sections; part three briefly describes the transition of Europe into the early modern or Renaissance period.
