Medieval Europe cover art

Medieval Europe

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Medieval Europe

By: Chris Wickham
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period - one not easily chronicled within a single volume. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation.

Tracking the entire sweep of the Middle Ages across Europe, Wickham focuses on important changes century by century, including such pivotal crises and moments as the fall of the western Roman Empire, Charlemagne's reforms, the feudal revolution, the challenge of heresy, the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, the rebuilding of late medieval states, and the appalling devastation of the Black Death. He provides illuminating vignettes that underscore how shifting social, economic, and political circumstances affected individual lives and international events. Wickham offers both a new conception of Europe's medieval period and a provocative revision of exactly how and why the Middle Ages matter.

©2016 Chris Wickham (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Europe Medieval Middle ages Imperialism Africa Inspiring Ottoman Empire Italy War United Kingdom Middle East Ancient History Crusade Renaissance World History

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World cover art
History of Denmark cover art
Guns, Germs and Steel cover art
Empire of the Romans cover art
The Adventure of English cover art
The Fall of the Roman Empire cover art
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution cover art
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire cover art
The Story of Philosophy cover art
Strategy cover art
The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
A Concise History of Spain cover art
Our Oriental Heritage cover art
A Brief History of Britain 1485-1660 cover art
Poland cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Enjoyed the history and tidbits about medieval Europe. The narrator does a great job, he’s easy to listen to.

Well narrated history of medieval Europe

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book covers a large area over a long time. Coverage is superficial with the occasional error. Similarities and trends are forced.

Superficial

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I covered this period for A-level, nearly thirty years ago now, and this was a great refresher. A good balance of thematic and chronological.

I think, though, I'd have preferred this as a physical book - it's one of those where jumping back and forth, using the index to remind who's who and what's what would make the reading experience far more rewarding. I have a copy of Wickham's The Inheritance of Rome (which is excellent, and probably needs a re-read), but that only covers the period 400-1000, rather than all the way up to 1500 as here. That latter 500 years of the middle ages proper is, from this book, where Wickham sees real developments start to emerge - the argument throughout is largely that the medieval period wasn't as backwards as traditional accounts would have us believe - but the period after 1250 or so is one I'm less familiar with, so I found this bit a little harder to follow.

Of course, it may also just have been because I was listening to this while walking the dog, so frequently getting distracted...

A very good overview

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Subject matter is interesting and the author knows his topic but the writing is boilerplate. Narrator is good.

Dry but informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Enjoyed this history of a period I have read a number of books on over the years. It’s quite concise in that it gets broadly the 1000 years from 500 - 1500 in a not significant length. However, it is very complex, especially when dealing with the political arrangements of the period, even has he makes these complex points well and interestingly. I did find the political chapters harder to take in while listening as opposed to reading. The social, religious and conflict chapters were excellent.

PS: the use of the phrase ‘that is to say’ is overused.

Concise and complex

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
More of a textbook for students rather than a listenable story, incredibly dense on dry subject matter. It's not digestible by Audiobook if you plan on listening while doing other things. Nothing wrong with the book itself, it's just not suitable for the morning commute!

Basically a textbook

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this bird's eye overwiev of medieval European history. Some ideas were fresh to me and I really liked that the author argued with the established tenets.
Reading was really easy to listen to.

Superb comparative history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I gave up History as soon as I could at school, not very interested in the learning of dates or How We Lived Then. Only in adult life did I discover this genre of history book - an overall picture of an era with an overall story unfolding. The tale of how Europe went from post-Roman empire around 500 to something very much like its current configuration by 1500 is a fascinating one. Going to investigate further I reckon.

Accessible, well-read and informative

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
free of preconceptions that so often are present in similar books.
rather detailed but still enjoyable from a non specialist.
highly recommended

very nice book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting in areas and a struggle elsewhere Seemed to flip around Europe focusing on medieval politics rather than the daily lives of people and how it differed across the continent or changed across the period. Perhaps a book for study more than general interest.

Overall, a bit of a struggle if I'm honest.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews