Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones
This magnificent doorstop is bookended by two sacks of Rome: AD410 and 1527. A thousand years race by in a terrifically colorful and compelling narrative history, with all the confidence, bravura and swift judgments essential to an overview of such a vast time span. Dan Jones also possesses a keen eye for how the ideas and passions of the medieval era are with us still — “for better or for worse,” as he observes on more than one occasion.
Equally praiseworthy is its freedom from any queasy, muddy undercurrents of obsequious apology and guilt that dog so much contemporary Western historiography. It’s always reasonable and fair.
