Surveying the years between 300 and 1550, this outstanding new textbook brings a long, complex and varied period of European history vividly to life for students, researchers and general readers of this period. Covering themes as diverse as barbarian migrations, the growth of cities, kingship, religious reform, the Crusades, commerce, the Black Death, and the intellectual and cultural life of the Middle Ages, it explores the driving forces behind the formation of medieval society and the directions in which it developed and changed. This inspiring textbook: provides a clear and stimulating survey account of medieval history over more than a thousand years; covers all the main issues and themes within a clear interpretive framework; includes illustrated, focused case studies in each chapter to assist learning, covering topics such as Roman Law, architecture, taxation, advances in medicine, the indulgence trade in the Church and a merchant's manual; gives wide geographical coverage and is richly illustrated with over a hundred photos, engravings, maps, tables and figures; and, is written by two leaders in their field with the most up-to-date research and reading. Taking a world that, by modern standards, was technologically underdeveloped, poor, unjust, violent, and dominated by figures of almost mythical proportions such as Saint Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Joan of Arc, Wim Blockmanns and Peter Hoppenbrouwers have produced a textbook that should, without doubt, take its rightful place on the reading list of any student of European history.