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Medieval Horizons

Why the Middle Ages Matter

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Medieval Horizons

By: Ian Mortimer
Narrated by: Ian Mortimer
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

We tend to think about the Middle Ages as a dark and backward time, characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. We believe that life was unchanging over the period, so if a peasant fell asleep in in the year 1000 and woke up six hundred years later, he would return to a world that was instantly recognisable. We hold that change is facilitated by science and technological innovation, and that it was the inventions of recent centuries, from the steam engine to the Internet, that created the modern world.

We couldn't be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating introduction to the Middle Ages, people's horizons—their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world—expanded dramatically. All aspects of life—politics and economics, religion and the arts—were utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, in the process laying the foundations on which our modern lives rest.

If Ian Mortimer's bestselling Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the period as a whole. It looks at the Middle Ages through the prism of a small range of topics—ranging from warfare to religion, travel to architecture, inequality to a new sense of self—thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as one of the most important eras in our past, about which any listener with an interest in history should care.

©2023 Ian Mortimer (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Great Britain World England

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Outstanding

Another fabulous book by Ian Mortimer. Well worth the listen whether you’re a medieval history buff or haven’t touched on the subject since high school, this book presents a great way of looking at the achievements of our medieval ancestors and how that period helped to develop the world we know today.

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A new appreciation

Thank you. I really enjoyed this journey back to the Middle Ages. I learnt so much about the period and have a new appreciation for the achievements of the people of the time.

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Very easy listening and insightful about the period

I really enjoyed this book and the author was easy to listen to. It was a good overview of the period and provided information that I haven't found in other books so rounded out my knowledge

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Excellent

Well read by learned author - contains information that I have been seeking for a while - and hadn’t found because I never thought of looking in the medieval period.

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Tour de Force!

This is how history should be! Ian Mortimer brings it not only alive but intensely personal to ourselves and also delivers it with the humanity history so desperately needs! Highly recommended!

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A brilliant book!

I've had many thoughts and questions about this topic over the years, I got lucky that one of my favourite historians/authors wrote this book. I love it and will relisten to it and recommend it to others.

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