Includes bibliographical references and index

The heritage of the ancient world -- The foundations of the Middle Ages -- The age of the barbarian invasions -- Justinian and Mohammed -- The advance of ecclesiastical leadership -- The making of Carolingian kingship -- Culture and society in the first Europe -- Ecclesia and mundus -- Byzantium, Islam, and the West -- Europe in 1050 -- The Gregorian world revolution -- The Anglo-Norman monarchy and the emergence of the bureaucratic state -- The first crusade and after -- The intellectual expansion of Europe -- Moslem and Jewish thought : the Aristotelian challenge -- Varieties of religious experience -- The entrenchment of secular leadership -- The peace of Innocent III -- The new consensus and its limitations -- The search for order -- Late medieval and Renaissance culture

"In 1963, Norman F. Cantor published his breakthrough narrative history of the Middle Ages. Further editions of this immediately celebrated book appeared in 1968 and 1974. Now, a thorough revision, update and significant expansion of the book has been made with a third of the text new. The Civilization of the Middle Ages incorporates current research, recent trends in interpretation, and novel perspectives, especially on the foundations of the Middle Ages to A.D. 450 and the Later Middle Ages of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as well as a sharper focus in social history, Jewish history, and women's roles in society, and popular religion and heresy. While the first and last sections of the book are almost entirely new and many additions have been incorporated in the intervening sections, Cantor has retained the powerful narrative flow that made the earlier editions so accessible and exciting." "Cantor's book was innovative in 1963 because it was the first comprehensive general history of the Middle Ages to center on medieval culture and religion rather than political history (which was, however, dealt with, but from the perspective of applied intellect and social ordering). It remains a unique book in that regard. The book also featured the highlighting of prominent medieval personalities through dozens of biographical sketches, which has been retained." "Although it draws upon a century of detailed research on the medieval world and is authoritative in its learning, from first page to last, Cantor's book tells an exciting and compelling story."--BOOK JACKET