Europe in the High Middle Ages (Penguin History of Europe)

The organization and writing is workmanlike. Jordan's schema divides the period first by century and then by region. This inevitably leads to repetition when the same event impacts dfferent regions and when Jordan backtracks or foreshadows events from other centuries in order to establish context. It is impossible to create a smooth narrative in such a rigid framework. The organization lends itself to spot referencing rather than reading cover to cover. Jordan may not be a prose stylist, but his writing is clear and concise.

There are no footnotes nor endnotes. The "References" section is a scant four pages long and is made up mostly of secondary sources. Jordan makes an occasional historiological feint, but without any real substance. One is left feeling the book is neither fish (a serious academic history) nor fowl (a popular history for the general public).

The most glaring defect in the book, for this reader, is its treatment, or rather non-treatment, of Muslim rule in Iberia and Sicily. Jordan finds time to tell us the sad story of Isaac, a Christian hermit, who persisted in reviling Muhammad in the streets of Cordoba in 852 and was executed after being warned to desist. Yet there is no mention of the Ummayad dynasty that had unified the Iberian peninsula into the Caliphate of Al Anadluz, whose officials put Isaac to death! At the beginning of the 11th Century Al Andaluz may have been the richest, was probably the most tolerant, and was certainly the most cultured region of Europe. Jordan devotes far more space to the "Reconquest" than he does to the Arabic culture and language that dominated the peninsula throughout the period covered in his book. The library at Cordoba contained 400,000 books and manuscripts at a time when the largest libary in Europe north of the Pyrenees had less than 500. Jordan begins his chapter, "The World of Learning" by connecting the start of "...a long period of renewal and creativity in Europe" to the First Crusade. In fact, the translations of classic Greek works of philosphy and science he says fueled the development of the schools of Paris and other universities came from Arabic texts translated by Muslims and Jews in Toledo at the behest of Abbot Hugh of Cluny. More than a page in the chapter on vernacular literature is devoted to the Song of Roland without noting that the chanson commemorates the retreat of Charlemagne before the armies of the first Ummayad Caliph Abd al Rahman. Jordan writes of the freebooter El Cid and "...his struggles with the Muslims", failing to mention that El Cid fought for Muslim rulers as well against them. In the extensive genealogical tables at the end of the book one finds lists of every Christian dynasty from Byzantium to Norway, but no mention of any Muslim dynasty. The first "King" of Portugal listed is Afonso I who ruled midway through the period with which the book is concerned. No earlier Muslim ruler is listed. The same thing is true of the rulers of Spain, Sicily, Tripoli, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Christian rulers of the period are listed, but nary a Muslim monarch. Jordan seems to have gone out of his way to render Muslim participation in and contribution to Europe's high middle ages invisible.


In-depth and complex, yet with a most readable tone   April 19, 2003
 8 out of 12 found this review helpful

Europe's High Middle Ages period spanned the Crusades and the events of Dante's classic writings and Thomas Aquinas: this paints a vivid picture of this lost age, surveying the great popes who revived the power of the church, the thinkers who ruled their times, and the social and religious philosophy of the era. In-depth and complex, yet with a most readable tone, this is a recommended pick.