This book, first published in 1973, examines the period when wars, famines and epidemics bred widespread conflicts, culminating in the revolutionary years of 1378–82 with the Florentine ‘Ciompi’, revolts in Flanders and France and the risings among English labourers. The analysis ends with the Hussite crisis which gave the movement a new aspect. The troubles were varied, with hunger riots in cities and brigandage in the country, open struggles between lords and peasants, urban conflicts ov...

A “marvelous history”* of medieval Europe, from the bubonic plague and the Papal Schism to the Hundred Years’ War, by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Guns of August*Lawrence Wright, author of The End of October, in The Wall Street JournalThe fourteenth century reflects two contradictory images: on the one hand, a glittering age of crusades, cathedrals, and chivalry; on the other, a world plunged into chao...

**'A gripping work, and a gripping translation' Nicholas Lezard, GuardianNiccolò Machiavelli's brutally uncompromising manual of statecraft, The Prince is translated and edited with an introduction by Tim Parks in Penguin Classics**As a diplomat in turbulent fifteenth-century Florence, Niccolò Machiavelli knew how quickly political fortunes could rise and fall. The Prince, his tough-minded, pragmatic handbook on how power really works, made his name notori...

Step back in time to the bustling heart of the Roman Empire with Jerome Carcopino's "Daily Life in Ancient Rome." This classic work offers an unparalleled glimpse into the intricacies of Roman society at its zenith, vividly detailing the lives of emperors, senators, merchants, and the enslaved alike. Carcopino meticulously reconstructs the rhythms of daily existence, from the morning rituals in Roman homes to the clamor of the Forum, the spectacles of the Colosseum, and the complexities of...

Feudal Society is a great work of historical synthesis in the finest French tradition. The author treats feudalism as a living and vitalising force in the society of Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century. After surveying the social and intellectual conditions in which feudalism developed, Bloch examines the nature of the bond of kinship both as a predecessor and as a concomitant of vassalage. The core of the book is a masterly account of the crea...

Nearly a century after it was first published in 1925, Medieval Cities remains one of the most provocative works of medieval history ever written. Here, Henri Pirenne argues that it was not the invasion of the Germanic tribes that destroyed the civilization of antiquity, but rather the closing of Mediterranean trade by Arab conquest in the seventh century. The consequent interruption of long-distance commerce accelerated the decline of the ancient cities of Europe. Pirenne challen...

The fifteenth century Council of Constance ends the Catholic Church's papal schism and sets Europe on its path to the Renaissance in this in-depth history.At the dawn of the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Empire posed an existential threat to Christian Europe. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church was in chaos, with three Popes claiming the Chair of Saint Peter and dangerous stirrings of reform. In an attempt to save the Christian world, Emperor Sigismund of the Holy Roma...

The five hundred years that separate the mid-tenth century from the mid-15th century constitute a critical and formative period in the history of Europe.This was the age of the system of legal and military obligation known as 'feudalism', and of the birth and consolidation of powerful kingdoms in England, France and Spain; it was an era of urbanization and the expansion of trade, of the building of the great Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, of courtly romance and the art of the tr...

THE placing by Leo III. of the Imperial crown upon the head of Charlemagne in St. Peter's on Christmas Day of the year 800 marked the commencement of a new era in the history of the world. But the Empire of the West, initiated at that moment in its dual character--political and religious--contained within itself the germs of infinite discords and calamities. As Roman and Christian it should have symbolised the union of nations; but meanwhile the Empire of the East, heir to Rome, continued ...

**“The latest volume to appear in the Penguin History of Europe. Like its companion volumes, [Christendom Destroyed] is no breezy survey but a masterly synthesis of depth and breadth."*—*The Wall Street Journal“The political and religious conflicts of early modern Europe receive high-quality treatment from Greengrass.... an excellent addition to the new Penguin History of Europe.”—Financial Times**From peasants to princes, no one was untouched by ...

The Cambridge Modern History is a comprehensive modern history of the world, beginning with the 15th century Age of Discovery. The first series was planned by Lord Acton and edited by him with Stanley Leathes, Adolphus Ward and George Prothero. The Cambridge Modern History Collection features all five original volumes: Volume I: The Renaissance Volume II: The Reformation, the End of the Middle Ages Volume III The Wars of Religion Volume IV: The 30 Years' War Volume V: The Age of Louis XIV

Drawing on new archaeological evidence, an authoritative history of Rome’s Great Fire—and how it inflicted lasting harm on the Roman EmpireAccording to legend, the Roman emperor Nero set fire to his majestic imperial capital on the night of July 19, AD 64 and fiddled while the city burned. It’s a story that has been told for more than two millennia—and it’s likely that almost none of it is true. In Rome Is Burning, distinguished Roman historian Anthony Bar...