Perspective

The authors, Joseph and Frances Gies, are self-described "amateur historians." Perhaps appropriately, the historical account presented is not particularly dense, detailed, or revelatory. Here is an account of mostly common knowledge about the High Middle Ages, at the level of a primer or introduction of a broad range of topics. The reader, enticed by a particular subject, may then want to explore the subject in greater detail in a more traditional history book with a more narrow focus.

The book is rarely interested in the various rises and falls of royals, and the outcomes of wars, as perhaps more traditional historical accounts might be. The authors instead adopt the perspective of a typical burgher in a typical town. The interest lay in the everyday and the prosaic, rather than the monumental and great. Particular people are eschewed for a broader and more generic approach; the author may describe...