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The Middle Ages Johannes Fried Peter Lewis 9780674055629 Books

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The Middle Ages Johannes Fried Peter Lewis 9780674055629 Books

For me, three stars just means a book is average, middle of the road, not bad but not really good. With that in mind, my three star rating here needs some explanation as The Middle Ages is, in some ways, a very very good book and in others, a very very bad book and thus I end up with “average.”

On the positive side, the content of Fried’s book is fascinating. His thesis is that the Middle Ages were not the dark period without culture, learning, etc as it is often portrayed. (Fried blames this notion largely on Kant.) Fried demonstrates, largely successfully I think, that an age that begins with a Boethius, Gregory the Great, and Charlemagne, ends with Dante, Giotto, and Charles IV and in between gave rise to William of Occam, Abelard, and the great Universities can hardly be seen as a time when art, education, and thinking were nonexistent. Fried’s view of the millennium between 500 and 1500 AD as constant cultural evolution is fascinating, well thought out and compelling.

However, on the negative side the book is seriously flawed, in ways that are probably not for the most part Fried’s fault. The one that clearly is his fault but is one that I could overlook considering the wealth of material being presented is his organization. As others have noted (and as he himself notes in his Preface) that he goes back and forth in time and place bewilderingly. This is a serious problem because it makes keeping the players straight almost impossible in view of the multiple King Charles, Pope Benedicts, etc. that meet throughout the book. It has been suggested that some genealogical charts, time lines etc. would help and I agree. Some maps would similarly be useful and the selected illustrations could use some editing as some don’t seem to go along with he “story” at all while others that you would expect to be there aren’t. The point of all of this is that the book is just plain hard to read, not because it’s concepts are difficult but because of how it is presented.

Going along with this, it appears to me that this is not a good translation from the original German. Now I admit that I don’t read German and certainly didn’t do a comparison but in many places the English is quite stilted and sometimes meaningless. It reads at some points like the translator, Peter Lewis did a literal word for word translation like, say, Google might do, without any consideration of the meaning and in the process, the meaning got lost.

Making these problems even worse is the fact that the editing is so bad as to be shameful. Someone at Belknap should lose their job. Words are misspelled, duplicated, homophones are inserted, phrases and words are repeated. I truly cannot remembering reading a book where the editing has been this poor.

All of this meant that in places, I had to read a sentence or a paragraph several times to understand it, usually only to find that the meaning wasn’t all that complicated. Thus, in the end, I can only recommend this to readers who have a particular interest in cultural history or a deep interest in the history of central Europe (the focus is heavily on the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy).


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The Middle Ages Johannes Fried Peter Lewis 9780674055629 Books Reviews

A complete history, well done and it opens many unknown aspects of the much maligned period. Author could have told more stories, however, to keep audience engaged. I am glad I persevered but it was a slog at times
Very well written with a useful, fresh and objective perspective on a long-neglected and poorly considered link in the chain of history. The human condition and thoughtful consideration of today's realities deserve this writing. Enjoyable read and practical, efficient study summarize my experiences with Fried's work with acknowledgement of the exceptional English translation.
A very scholarly work, but one that demands patience and attention to grasp the message and the history. I found myself re-reading almost every sentence to get the writer's point of view. An academic masterpiece but too deep for the entertainment of the casual history buff.
This book has for me two major benefits
(1) it gives an excellent overview about intellectual life from the very beginning of the Middle Ages and, although it's not the first to do that, it shows convincingly that the expression "Dark Ages" is completely wrong.
(2) it is truly a european history.
I could as well have given it 5 stars, but I prefer 4 because the author assumes that you already know well the general history of the period being French, I would have liked to have some more details about the history of the Holy Roman Empire. But this would have resulted in a much thicker volume and, today, it is always possible to find additional information on the internet.
I was fascinated by this account, particularly the first half of the book. It was a struggle between the secular and Christian powers for secular supremacy. The second half of the book was an account of the dawn of the Renaissance. The emphasis of the book was very different from the way I learned history is school, with its emphasis of names and dates. This book was about ideas and philosophies, many of which led to our institutions and factions in the modern world.
Excellent scholarship from a distinguished German historian, not a light read by any means, but worth the slog. Much here that is novel, even for someone who has read extensively in the field. Fried's principal thesis is that the Middle Ages led seamlessly to the Renaissance, that the intellectuals of the later era and even the "philosophes" who scorned medieval scholasticism and mysticism as backward in fact stood on the shoulders of the monks and thinkers who went before. The great cathedrals of the High Middle Ages were not built by ignorant savages. The political order that emerged in Europe was first "sketched out" during the medieval period; it was not invented by the Treaty of Westphalia.
Quite a good book, a good read even translated in English. This is for readers who have some familiarity with the Middle Ages. It discusses the intellectual and social trends and developments more than political events. It's a long book, but moves quickly - it has to, it covers a long period of time- and, as noted, assumes familiarity with the main characters and a general knowledge of what happened. The most interesting part is the thought leadership in each period and how it influenced later periods; so, for example, the blending of Visigothic propensities with Christian teachings, and how it came to bear on European society. Worth reading. Don't expect to breeze through. It requires concentration.
For me, three stars just means a book is average, middle of the road, not bad but not really good. With that in mind, my three star rating here needs some explanation as The Middle Ages is, in some ways, a very very good book and in others, a very very bad book and thus I end up with “average.”

On the positive side, the content of Fried’s book is fascinating. His thesis is that the Middle Ages were not the dark period without culture, learning, etc as it is often portrayed. (Fried blames this notion largely on Kant.) Fried demonstrates, largely successfully I think, that an age that begins with a Boethius, Gregory the Great, and Charlemagne, ends with Dante, Giotto, and Charles IV and in between gave rise to William of Occam, Abelard, and the great Universities can hardly be seen as a time when art, education, and thinking were nonexistent. Fried’s view of the millennium between 500 and 1500 AD as constant cultural evolution is fascinating, well thought out and compelling.

However, on the negative side the book is seriously flawed, in ways that are probably not for the most part Fried’s fault. The one that clearly is his fault but is one that I could overlook considering the wealth of material being presented is his organization. As others have noted (and as he himself notes in his Preface) that he goes back and forth in time and place bewilderingly. This is a serious problem because it makes keeping the players straight almost impossible in view of the multiple King Charles, Pope Benedicts, etc. that meet throughout the book. It has been suggested that some genealogical charts, time lines etc. would help and I agree. Some maps would similarly be useful and the selected illustrations could use some editing as some don’t seem to go along with he “story” at all while others that you would expect to be there aren’t. The point of all of this is that the book is just plain hard to read, not because it’s concepts are difficult but because of how it is presented.

Going along with this, it appears to me that this is not a good translation from the original German. Now I admit that I don’t read German and certainly didn’t do a comparison but in many places the English is quite stilted and sometimes meaningless. It reads at some points like the translator, Peter Lewis did a literal word for word translation like, say, Google might do, without any consideration of the meaning and in the process, the meaning got lost.

Making these problems even worse is the fact that the editing is so bad as to be shameful. Someone at Belknap should lose their job. Words are misspelled, duplicated, homophones are inserted, phrases and words are repeated. I truly cannot remembering reading a book where the editing has been this poor.

All of this meant that in places, I had to read a sentence or a paragraph several times to understand it, usually only to find that the meaning wasn’t all that complicated. Thus, in the end, I can only recommend this to readers who have a particular interest in cultural history or a deep interest in the history of central Europe (the focus is heavily on the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy).