Roman Empire, the rise of the church, the reemergence of cities, agricultural developments, monastic movements, the Crusades, as well as artistic and architectural movements. However, the book doesn’t just focus on great men and big things, it also includes groups that are often sadly left out of the historical record including Jewish people, queer people, sex workers, and women. The idea was to make it clear that the medieval period wasn’t just a series of rich men talking to and warring with each other, but a complex time with a society every bit as multi-layered as our own.
Of course, what makes The Middle Ages really special is the fact that it is very much a graphic history. The authors amazing illustrator, Neil Max Emanuele, did an incredible job bringing the history to life with his pictures. They had worked together to use real medieval art as guides so that the illustrations would make sense in context, while Neil also worked to stretch the boundaries of how that might work for a modern audience. The result is hundreds of gorgeous pieces of art that the author thinks really help emphasize the fact that studying the medieval period might be complex, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun.
