Abbreviations and Conventions
Biographical Sketches
Medieval Myths
Maps
List of Figures
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Romans, Christians, and Barbarians
The Early Middle Ages
The Roman Peace (31 B.C.E.-180 C.E.) and After
Christianity
Barbarians and the Western Empire
The Decline of the Western Empire

Chapter 2: Early Western Christendom, c. 500-700
Early Medieval Society
Early Medieval Politics
The Early Medieval Church
Intellectual Life

Chapter 3: The Byzantine Empire, c. 500-1000
Byzantine Government
Byzantine Christianity
Byzantine Economy and Society
Byzantine Culture
The Course of Byzantine Politics

Chapter 4: The Islamic Empires, c. 571-1100
Arabia and Muhammad (c. 571-632)
The Islamic Empires
Islamic Culture
Religion, Race, and Difference

Chapter 5: Carolingian Europe, c. 700-850
The Early Carolingians
Charlemagne (r. 768-814)
Intellectual Revival

Chapter 6: Division, Invasion, and Reorganization, c. 800-1000
Division: The Later Carolingians
Invasion: Muslims, Magyars, and Vikings
Reorganization: New Polities

Chapter 7: Economic Takeoff and Social Change in the Countryside, c. 1000-1300
The Central Middle Ages
Agricultural Revolution
Rural Society

Chapter 8: Economic Takeoff and Social Change in Town and Court, c. 1000-1300
The Commercial Revolution
Urban Society
The Landholding Aristocracy
Feudal Society
The Expansion of Education

Chapter 9: Popes and the Papacy, c. 1000-1300
Popes, Clergy, and Laity, c. 1000-1122
The Reformed Papacy and its Church
Innocent III and the Papacy Ascendant
The Papacy after 1250

Chapter 10: New Paths to God, c. 1000-1300
Judaism
The Evolution of Christian Piety
Orthodoxy and Heresy
Changes in Monastic Life
The Mendicant Orders

Chapter 11: Conquests, Crusades, and Persecutions, c. 1100-1300
Conquests and Territorial Expansion
Crusades
Persecutions
Conclusion

Chapter 12: States Made and Unmade, c. 1000-1300
The Holy Roman Empire: Disintegration
England: King and Parliament
France: The Monarchy Triumphant
Iberia: Some Consolidation
The States of Northern and Eastern Europe

Chapter 13: Literature, Art, and Thought, c. 1000-1300
Byzantine and Islamic Influences
Intellectual Trends
Literature
Architecture and Sculpture

Chapter 14: Famine, Plague, and Recovery, c. 1300-1500
The Later Middle Ages
Economic Woes and Demographic Crisis (1300-1350)
Adjustment and Recovery (1350-1500)
Late Medieval Christianity

Chapter 15: Toward the Sovereign State, c. 1300-1500
England, France, and the Hundred Years' War
England: Parliament, Civil War, and Tudor Monarchy
France: Constitutional Crisis, War, and the Spider King
The Iberian States: Consolidation through Homogenization
New Powers on the European Periphery
The Heritage of the Holy Roman Empire

Chapter 16: Diversity and Dynamism in Culture, c. 1300-1500
Literacy and Vernacular Languages
Humanist Education
Literature
Art and Architecture
Philosophy
Political Thought

Glossary
Photo Credits
Index