Jane M. Bingham

Medieval World is a non-fiction book aimed at middle school readers that provides an overview of the Medieval period of history from about 500-1500 AD. It covers European historical events starting with the Byzantine Empire and traveling through the centuries to include Viking conquests, the rise of Anglo-Saxons in England and their later defeat by the Normans, as well as Charlemagne’s Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. It discusses the roles of knights, nobles, and peasants, along with what life was like in castles, villages, and towns. It tells of pilgrimages, the Crusades, and the Black Death. It also branches out to relate events in other parts of the world as well, including the Middle East, Africa, India, China, and Japan. Then it takes readers to North and South American, where we learns of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas, as well as other Indigenous peoples. Then it wraps up with a discussion of the art, ideas, and inventions of the Renaissance period and the voyages of several famous explorers. It also has a glossary and is fully indexed, in addition to providing a handy timeline chart that shows how these events were happening in different parts of the world at the same time.

Medieval World is an excellent overview of the major events and players in the Medieval period of history. While it doesn’t go into great depth about these events, with each one only encompassing a page or two, it is very well put together. It must have been difficult to decide which events to include from a thousand years of world history, but I thought the author did a great job of choosing the most important ones and synopsizing each in such a way as to be understandable to the book’s target audience. Each page (or two) has a handy timeline to let the reader know what years are being covered and color coding to tell where in the world these things took place, as well as a map of the area being discussed for visualization and an important dates box to pare it down to a bare-bones quick reference. The book is also beautifully illustrated, not only with images of world leaders and other events, but also with detailed drawings of homes and villages, etc. to show what day-to-day life was like. These illustrations include cutaways to “see inside” and little side notes to show where things are located or to better describe what’s happening.

I also loved the diversity of the book. As a Caucasian person of European decent, when I hear the word medieval, I typically think of knights, castles, tournaments, and such, but of course there’s so much more than that. This book provides plenty of those things, but I was thrilled to discover that it also explores this period of history all over the world and how the different groups of people came to explore, trade, or learn more about each other. I thought this gave the book a very holistic and well-rounded feel. The only concerning thing I found is that it does talk about wars and people being killed and sometimes this is depicted in the illustrations as well. However, it’s usually no more than a brief mention, and aside from one bloody picture showing Aztecs making human sacrifices, I didn’t notice anything else particularly graphic, so overall, I’d say it’s appropriate for the middle-schoolers at which it’s aimed. Medieval World was an interesting read that I would definitely recommend for the young history buff. It even taught me a few things as an adult. I think it could also be a great way to gauge a child’s interest in certain events, providing a jumping off point for more in-depth learning. Medieval World is part of the Usborne World History series that has left me very interested in checking out the other periods of history that are covered in this series.… (meer)