Daniel Philip Waley

A very quick zip around roughly 300 years of history in Western Europe. The 13th and 14th centuries are particularly ones that I do not know much about; unfortunately the feeling I had after reading this book was not that I learnt what happened, but that I became aware of how much I don't know. Waley doesn't give explanations of the most major of figures; he takes it as assumed knowledge. This is okay if you have an idea of the time period but for me this was a bit of problem, especially with French kings. Overall, not bad for a very quick overview, and there were some stand-out chapters like the one on Burgundy, but perhaps not ideal as a introductory text to any of the time periods or places covered.… (mehr)

This is a good short overview of independent Italian city states in the 12th - 13th centuries, particularly their internal government and external politics. I thought the chapter on internal divisions was especially interesting, because it demonstrates how precarious this "republican" form of government was. In the concluding chapter the author states that the occasional survival of republicanism is actually more difficult to explain than the eventual triumph of large-scale monarchy. This book can be recommended to readers interested in renaissance history and early quasi-democratic government in Europe.… (mehr)