Many aspects of life were transformed in the years between 1050 and 1250; art and architecture reached new heights, music and philosophy enriched life while society became relatively more mobile. This well-presented book searches for evidence of the mentality that produced the High Middle Ages, its aesthetics and social values. Focusing on Germany and, to a lesser degree, France and England, Dinzelbacher examines relations between the medieval man or woman and God, the ideal of a Utopia, attitudes towards sex and morality, violence and war, the natural world around them, and the ways in which medieval people could express themselves. Illustrated throughout with photographs, mostly in colour, of works of art and buildings.