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In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. 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But the myth of darkness obscures the truth; this was a remarkable period in human history. The Bright Ages recasts the European Middle Ages for what it was, capturing this 1,000-year era in all its complexity and fundamental humanity, bringing to light both its beauty and its horrors. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Bright Ages\u003c\/em\u003e takes us through ten centuries and crisscrosses Europe and the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, revisiting familiar people and events with new light cast upon them. We look with fresh eyes on the Fall of Rome, Charlemagne, the Vikings, the Crusades, and the Black Death, but also to the multi-religious experience of Iberia, the rise of Byzantium, and the genius of Hildegard and the power of queens. 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The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious's sons tried to overthrow him--and then placed their knives at the other's neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other's blood.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Carolingian Civil War would rage for years as kings fought kings, brother faced off against brother, and sons challenged fathers. \u003cem\u003eOathbreakers\u003c\/em\u003e is the dramatic history of this brutal, turbulent time. Medieval historians David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele illuminate what happens when a once unshakeable political and cultural order breaks down and long suppressed tensions flare into deadly violence. Drawn from rich primary sources, featuring a wide cast of characters, packed with dramatic twists and turns, this is history that rivals the greatest fictional epics--with consequences that continue to shape our own world.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOathbreakers \u003c\/em\u003eoffers lessons of what deep cracks in a once-stable social and political fabric might reveal, and the bloody consequences of disagreeing on facts and reality. The Civil War at the heart of this tale asks: who is \"in\" and who is \"out\"? And what happens when things fall apart?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0063336715\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780063336711\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Gabriele, Matthew, Perry, David M.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Harper Perennial\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Dec 2025)","offer_id":45937243652293,"sku":"9780063336711","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780063336711.jpg?v=1772856572"},{"product_id":"the-plantagenets-the-warrior-kings-and-queens-who-made-england","title":"The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestseller, from the author of \u003ci\u003ePowers and Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e, that tells the story of Britain's greatest and worst dynasty--\"a real-life \u003ci\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe first Plantagenet kings inherited a blood-soaked realm from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. 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This is the era of chivalry and the Black Death, the Knights Templar, the founding of parliament, and the Hundred Years' War, when England's national identity was forged by the sword.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0143124927\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780143124924\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Jones, Dan\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Mar 2014)","offer_id":45937611243717,"sku":"9780143124924","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780143124924_6b1faa11-3e66-4b44-8402-9a0bd7856064.jpg?v=1772881108"},{"product_id":"the-penguin-book-of-the-undead-fifteen-hundred-years-of-supernatural-encounters","title":"The Penguin Book of the Undead: Fifteen Hundred Years of Supernatural Encounters","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe walking dead from 15 centuries haunt this compendium of ghostly visitations through the ages, exploring the history of our fascination with zombies and other restless souls.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Since ancient times, accounts of supernatural activity have mystified us. 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Spanning from the Hebrew scriptures to the Roman Empire, the Scandinavian sagas to medieval Europe, the Protestant Reformation to the Renaissance, this beguiling array of accounts charts our relationship with spirits and apparitions, wraiths and demons over fifteen hundred years, showing the evolution in our thinking about the ability of dead souls to return to the realm of the living--and to warn us about what awaits us in the afterlife. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. 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When Christian armies seized Jerusalem in 1099, they began the most notorious period of conflict between the two religions. Depending on who you ask, the fall of the holy city was either an inspiring legend or the greatest of horrors. In \u003ci\u003eCrusaders\u003c\/i\u003e, Dan Jones interrogates the many sides of the larger story, charting a deeply human and avowedly pluralist path through the crusading era. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExpanding the usual timeframe, Jones looks to the roots of Christian-Muslim relations in the eighth century and tracks the influence of crusading to present day. He widens the geographical focus to far-flung regions home to so-called enemies of the Church, including Spain, North Africa, southern France, and the Baltic states. By telling intimate stories of individual journeys, Jones illuminates these centuries of war not only from the perspective of popes and kings, but from Arab-Sicilian poets, Byzantine princesses, Sunni scholars, Shi'ite viziers, Mamluk slave soldiers, Mongol chieftains, and barefoot friars. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCrusading remains a rallying call to this day, but its role in the popular imagination ignores the cooperation and complicated coexistence that were just as much a feature of the period as warfare. The age-old relationships between faith, conquest, wealth, power, and trade meant that crusading was not only about fighting for the glory of God, but also, among other earthly reasons, about gold. In this richly dramatic narrative that gives voice to sources usually pushed to the margins, Dan Jones has written an authoritative survey of the holy wars with global scope and human focus.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0143108972\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780143108979\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Jones, Dan\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Penguin Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Oct 2020)","offer_id":45937616748741,"sku":"9780143108979","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780143108979.jpg?v=1772881243"},{"product_id":"a-distant-mirror-the-calamitous-14th-century","title":"A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century","description":"\u003cb\u003eA \"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 \u003ci\u003eThe Guns of August\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e*Lawrence Wright, author of \u003ci\u003eThe End of October, \u003c\/i\u003ein\u003ci\u003e The Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The 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 chaos and spiritual agony. In this revelatory work, Barbara W. Tuchman examines not only the great rhythms of history but the grain and texture of domestic life: what childhood was like; what marriage meant; how money, taxes, and war dominated the lives of serf, noble, and clergy alike. Granting her subjects their loyalties, treacheries, and guilty passions, Tuchman re-creates the lives of proud cardinals, university scholars, grocers and clerks, saints and mystics, lawyers and mercenaries, and, dominating all, the knight--in all his valor and \"furious follies,\" a \"terrible worm in an iron cocoon.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eA Distant Mirror\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Beautifully written, careful and thorough in its scholarship . . . What Ms. Tuchman does superbly is to tell \u003ci\u003ehow \u003c\/i\u003eit was. . . . No one has ever done this better.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A beautiful, extraordinary book . . . Tuchman at the top of her powers . . . She has done nothing finer.\"\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"Wise, witty, and wonderful . . . a great book, in a great historical tradition.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Commentary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0345349571\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780345349576\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Tuchman, Barbara W.\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Random House Trade\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Random House Trade","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Jul 1987)","offer_id":46079788286149,"sku":"9780345349576","price":23.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780345349576.jpg?v=1776031815"},{"product_id":"the-wolf-age-the-vikings-the-anglo-saxons-and-the-battle-for-the-north-sea-empire","title":"The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons and the Battle for the North Sea Empire","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Skeie's account of ruthless conflict, political intrigue, and diplomatic machinations reads like a real-life \u003ci\u003eGame of Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e--without the dragons. Medieval history buffs will be riveted.\" \u003ci\u003e--Publishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrilling history provides a new perspective on the Viking-Anglo Saxon conflicts and brings the bloody period vividly to life, perfect for fans of Dan Jones \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe first major book on Vikings by a Scandinavian author to be published in English, \u003ci\u003eThe Wolf Age\u003c\/i\u003e reframes the struggle for a North Sea empire and puts readers in the mindset of Vikings, providing new insight into their goals, values, and what they chose to live and die for. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTore Skeie (\"Norway's Most Important Young Historian\") takes readers on a thrilling journey through the bloody shared history of England and Scandinavia, and on across early medieval Europe, from the wild Norwegian fjords to the wealthy cities of Muslim Andalusia. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWarfare, plotting, backstabbing and bribery abound as Skeie skillfully weaves sagas and skaldic poetry with breathless dramatization as he entertainingly brings the world of the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons to vivid life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the eleventh century, the rulers of the lands surrounding the North Sea are all hungry for power. To get power they need soldiers, to get soldiers they need silver, and to get silver there is no better way than war and plunder. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis vicious cycle draws all the lands of the north into a brutal struggle for supremacy and survival that will shatter kingdoms and forge an empire...\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1782278354\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781782278351\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Skeie, Tore, McCullough, Alison\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: Pushkin Press\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Pushkin Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback (Nov 2022)","offer_id":46079840714949,"sku":"9781782278351","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781782278351.jpg?v=1776032163"},{"product_id":"the-golden-thread-a-history-of-the-western-tradition-volume-ii-the-modern-and-contemporary-west","title":"The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West","description":"\u003cb\u003eA compelling, resource-rich history of the modern West--from the Renaissance to the present--designed for students and lifelong learners alike, and grounded in the enduring ideals of liberty, faith, and reason. This is Volume II of a two-part series tracing the story of Western civilization from antiquity to the modern age.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Western Tradition from 1500 to the Present\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith the Renaissance in Europe, the Western world experienced a long series of cataclysmic events that still reverberate in modern society. Written by Allan C. Guelzo, \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Thread, Volume II: The Modern and Contemporary West \u003c\/i\u003ebegins in 1500, when the Protestant Reformation brought an end of the Roman Catholic Church's dominance over European states. It then turns to the rise of imperial powers that swiftly circled the globe, and to the explosion of intellectual, economic, and technological advancements sparked by the Enlightenment. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese were moments of flourishing in Western civilization, but also moments of uncertainty, as they portended the violent political upheavals that shook continental Europe and the Americas during the American, French and Bolivarian Revolutions as well as the Napoleonic Wars. The Industrial Revolution, the Romantic revolt against the Enlightenment, and a second wave of scientific advancement in the nineteenth century challenged any attempt to restore the classical unity of the West. A radically redrawn world emerged from these developments, one that was ill-prepared for the colossal physical and moral shocks of the First and Second World Wars.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn its closing chapters, Guelzo explores how Western civilization has, in our own time, been simultaneously challenged by secular totalitarianism and yet remained remarkably resilient laying the foundations for material prosperity around the globe. Through the paradoxes of the twentieth century, \u003ci\u003eThe Golden Thread\u003c\/i\u003e engages with the most significant questions facing the West today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Golden Thread\u003ci\u003e is a two-volume history of the Western tradition. Volume I is authored by James Hankins; Volume II, covering the modern and contemporary West, is authored by Allen C. 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Largely forgotten by modern readers, these women have an astonishing amount to teach us about love, marriage, motherhood, friendship, and earning a living. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Reading the words of these four writers, Hetta Howes engagingly reveals how everyday women lived, survived, and thrived in medieval times. Who did they marry and why? Did they ever have extramarital affairs? Could they earn money and become self-sufficient? Could they be leaders? 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Luckily, he knew something few of us know-- that for all its reputation for darkness and superstition, the Middle Ages were the golden age of self-help. So he set out on a journey to explore the wisdom of medieval scholars, saints, and mystics, looking for an alternative path through the challenges of modern life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNever in history, Jones marvels in \u003ci\u003eSelf-Help from the Middle Ages\u003c\/i\u003e, has so much energy and talent gone into studying how the mind works as in the medieval centuries. Although today we think of the Seven Deadly Sins as a catalog of forbidden behavior, in the Middle Ages, at the height of their currency, they were a path to self-knowledge and self-forgiveness. 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He argues that the personal and strategic failings of the First Crusade's leaders led to the establishment of a state that could not be sustained, and that the absence of such a state left Europe vulnerable to Islamic aggression for centuries afterward. Writing in 1937, following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Belloc believed that the West had finally gained the advantage over its mortal foe. 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Discover the real Count Dracula\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e Spain's El Cid, England's Richard Lionheart, and many other historical figures, whose true and original claim to fame revolved around their defiant stance against jihadist aggression. \u003ci\u003eDefenders of the West\u003c\/i\u003e is an instructive and inspiring read. 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All medieval history is here, beautifully narrated.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Wall Street Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A lively history . . . [Jones] has managed to touch every major topic. As each piece of the puzzle is placed into position, the modern world gradually comes into view . . . \u003ci\u003ePowers and Thrones\u003c\/i\u003e provides the reader with a framework for understanding a complicated subject, and it tells the story of an essential era of world history with skill and style.\"\u003ci\u003e--The New York Times\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author returns with an epic history of the medieval world--a rich and complicated reappraisal of an era whose legacy and lessons we are still living with today.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. 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