This groundbreaking collection brings the Middle Ages to life and conveys the distinctiveness of this diverse, constantly changing period. Thirty-eight scholars bring together one medieval world from many disparate worlds, from Connacht to Constantinople and from Tynemouth to Timbuktu.

This extraordinary set of reconstructions presents the reader with a vivid re-drawing of the medieval past, offering fresh appraisals of the evidence and modern historical writing.

Chapters are thematically linked in four sections:

• identities
• beliefs, social values and symbolic order
• power and power-structures
• elites, organizations and groups.

Packed full of original scholarship, The Medieval World is essential reading for anyone studying medieval history.

'The editors should be toasted for having distilled something of the lively spirit and substance of their subject into a single, concentrated product. Those with a taste, whether refined or modest, for the Middle Ages are urged to partake.' - History Today

'A rich and exemplary picture of contemporary issues, debates and approaches ... fresh, well-written, and intelligently presented ... invaluable not only to scholars and students of history, but to anyone who has ever wondered at the Middle Ages and its continuing hold on our imagination.' - Professor Patrick Geary, University of California, USA