{"product_id":"the-bright-ages-a-new-history-of-medieval-europe","title":"The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The beauty and levity that Perry and Gabriele have captured in this book are what I think will help it to become a standard text for general audiences for years to come.The Bright Ages is a rare thinga nuanced historical work that almost anyone can enjoy reading.Slate \"Incandescent and ultimately intoxicating.\" The Boston Globe A lively and magisterial popular history that refutes common misperceptions of the European Middle Ages  showing the beauty and communion that flourished alongside the dark brutalitya brilliant reflection of humanity itself. The word medieval conjures images of the Dark Agescenturies of ignorance  superstition  stasis  savagery  and poor hygiene. But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was  capturing this 1 000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity  bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors. The Bright Ages takes us through ten centuries and crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean  Asia and Africa  revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon them. We look with fresh eyes on the Fall of Rome  Charlemagne  the Vikings  the Crusades  and the Black Death  but also to the multi-religious experience of Iberia  the rise of Byzantium  and the genius of Hildegard and the power of queens. We begin under a blanket of golden stars constructed by an empress with Germanic  Roman  Spanish  Byzantine  and Christian bloodlines and end nearly 1 000 years later with the poet Danteinspired by that same twinkling celestial canopywriting an epic saga of heaven and hell that endures as a masterpiece of literature today. The Bright Ages reminds us just how permeable our manmade borders have always been and of what possible worlds the past has always made available to us. The Middle Ages may have been a world lit only by fire but it was one whose torches illuminated the magnificent rose windows of cathedrals  even as they stoked the pyres of accused heretics. The Bright Ages contains an 8-page color insert.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44986300104757,"sku":"ByrdShop_0062980890","price":30.62,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780062980892.jpg?v=1770895188","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-bright-ages-a-new-history-of-medieval-europe","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}