Europe 

In 1100 Europe was open in boundaries, faith and outlook. By the middle of the fourteenth century it was 'closed' - by Mongol and Turkish invasions, by the rift with Byzantium, by the intolerant dogmatism of the Church.

Friedrich Heer's tour de force of scholarship and originality recreates that world: the daily life of aristocrats and peasants, town-dwellers and countryfolk; the growth of serfdom and the flowering of chivalry, the roles of cleric and courtier, painter and poet, king and philosopher. In it we can see our own world in embryo. As Professor Heer writes: 'History is the present, the present is history.'

'Friedrich Heer's The Medieval World is learned, very wide in scope and exciting in its boldness. Not a narrative but a survey of the main elements of the life and culture of the high Middle Ages, it describes its varied scene with a richness no narrative could attain.' Anthony Quinton

Taken from the back cover.