This is an insightful and entertaining general treatment of the history of Europe from the fall of Rome to the Reformation. As its name informs, it's less a march through events than a chronologically arranged study of civilizing themes. Cantor's basic thrust is that the West was formed during this period of religious and national development. ( )

Civilization is a single volume survey of Medieval history from 300 to 1500. Cantor was a Medieval history professor at a New York City university from the 1960s until the 1990s teaching thousands of undergrad classes. This is a synthesis of everything "most people want to know" about the Middle Ages, it has consistently remained one of the most popular medieval history books in the US for decades.

I've been studying Medieval history fairly intently for about three years - it is a vast subject of about 1,200 years, each century filled with unique events, people and ideas. Distilling it into 500 pages of the most important elements and weaving a common thematic narrative is something only a few have attempted and very few have successfully achieved. Cantors work is truly a gift.

Cantor avoids the common, but banal, political narrative of kings, wars and conquests. He reminds us that the Battle Milvian Bridge was one of only a handful of truly important battles in history. He focuses on that most powerful of all historical forces: ideas. As such the Middle Ages was a period of Christianity, and many of the changing ideas related to theology and the synthesis of faith with reason.

What I found most remarkable was how Cantor could touch on a huge number of subjects, in one or two sentences putting them into historical context, and move on to the next. This book really demands prior knowledge of the Middle Ages, the more the better, but it can also profitably be read by a beginner. In fact for beginners I would suggest professor Phillip Daileader's 2-part (12 hours each) lecture series from The Teaching Company before reading Cantor's book as it gives an easier entry, but doesn't have Cantors incredible intellect and insight tyeing everything together. ( )