336 pages | Paperback

The Bright Agesis a rare thinga nuanced historical work that almost anyone can enjoy reading.Slate

A brisk book that illuminates an enormous historical period. . . . Incandescent and ultimately intoxicating.Boston Globe

The word medieval conjures images of the Dark Agescenturies of ignorance, superstition, stasis, savagery, and poor hygiene. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history.The Bright Agesrecasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors.

Moving through ten centuries and crisscrossing Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia, and Africa, this magisterial history casts new light on familiar people and events, including the Fall of Rome, Charlemagne, the Vikings, the Crusades, and the Black Death, as well as the multireligious experience of Iberia, the rise of Byzantium, and the genius of Hildegard of Bingen and the power of queens.

The Bright Agesreminds us just how permeable our man-made borders have always been and of what possible worlds the past has always made available to us. The Middle Ages may have been a world lit only by fire but it was one whose torches illuminated the magnificent rose windows of cathedrals, even as they stoked the pyres of accused heretics.