Reading the cover I thought the book would focus on European History but was delightfully surprised when the narrative veered into early Chinese and Indian History and other locales. One forgets that instability was a global trait during the Middle Ages. ( )

Ljúft sagnfræðirit sem segir sögu helstu ríkja heimsins í öllum heimsálfum. Bauer tengir vel saman áhrif trúarbragða við stjórnmál og hvernig margir höfðingjar nýttu sér trúnna til að bæði ná völdum og sameina íbúana að baki sér. Það er ekki síður áberandi á þessu tímabili hve trúin gat orðið öflugt vald hvort sem menn voru sanntrúaðir eður ei. Einn af kostum ritsins er líka að sjá og bera saman t.d. hvað var að gerast í Kína á meðan Islamistar klofnuðu og börðust hver við annan. ( )

This was an amazing romp through the Middle Ages. Bauer's swift, deft description of the events (documented from a variety of sources) gets to the heart and soul of the timeline. The only gripe is that everything happens so fast that details, interesting ones, seem to be skipped over. Nevertheless, this is a commendable book- truly a great work.

4 stars! ( )

Mrs. Bauer is going to tell you just how good you have it. Or better yet. She is not going to tell you how good you have it, she is going to make you feel like a dunce for taking your life or anything else in the world for granted. If you think your life sucks and if you want to complain about day to day events......then by all means take this trip with her. Human life is so precarious and things can change before you know it. If I was told that or knew that I was in a position to rule a kingdom in this time frame.....I would have taken the first boat out of dodge. Which is exactly what some of these preemptive rulers did. And heaven help then when the powers that be and karma caught up to them. Unless you were in the 1 percent someone was going to kill you, gouge out your eyes, slit your nose, castrate you or even worse. No one was safe and nothing was predictable. Incredible volume on a pivot point in history that determined so much of the future. ( )

4/9/2017 8:52 AM I started reading this at BN a couple of weeks ago. Need to get copy from library