My mind was formed with an appreciation of the relatively tidy Middle Ages available to the English speaker, the history of the island of Great Britain. This is a differing view of the larger questions that arise with an education arising from a Central European framework. It is an essential book to the previous generation of medievalists. Though there are some signs that this work was originally begun under the Nazui regime, the framework demonstrated here is a valuable item in creating a broader world view than the strictly British/North American focus. ( )

Friedrich Heer was a professor of the History of Ideas at the University of Vienna and in this book he looks at western european medieval history from 1150 - 1350 (the Early Middle Ages).
He integrates a lot of information very successfully - the Angevins, Italian banking, the Hanseatic League, but over it all he shows that this was still a time of fluidity in religion and the formation of states. Catholicism fought with revivalist religions (Cathars etc.) and dynastic control ebbed and flowed over the whole region ( e.g. the conquest of England by the Dukes of Normandy or later Angevin rule including England and Provence). Extreme religious and nationalist intolerance came in the later Middle Ages.
It's complex and OTT in places but an interesting book written by a knowledgeable enthusiast. ( )

2413 The Medieval World: Europe 1100-1350, by Friedrich Heer translated from the German by Janet Sondheimer (read 30 Sep 1991) This is a superlative book, though it has some disturbing things on medieval intolerance one doesn't often hear about. The first chapter drug some, but one can only stand in amazement at some of the chapters which display the author's sure command of his subject. The book is full of interesting things. I don't remember ever hearing of Ramon Lull before (1235-1315), who is a fascinating character and still has an article in today's Britannica. He was stoned to death in Tunis in 1315 at the age of 80. The book is full of fascinating insights. ( )

INDEX; BIBLIOGRAPHY