Some people are obviously destined, even from a tender young age, to become historians. Then there are others. This scintillating book report, written when I was about ten, reveals an early, rapt fascination with all things medieval, an obsession that is articulated most clearly in the final paragraph.

This covers the middle ages in Europe, from the time of the feudal lords and manors to the Renaissance. During this time many things are going on. Many new devices are being invented. Many new changes are taking place. I will tell about some of these things in this report.

The feudal lords and manors were, in the early middle ages, the only way of life in Europe. It was fine for the lords, but the serfs lived miserably in little tiny huts. The lords, vassals, and knights lived off the serfs' hard labor. The poor peasents barely got enough food to live on for all their work, and they couldn't get out of it.

The middle ages were probably the most religious period of time for Western Man. The Roman Catholic church was the only religion in England, France, and other places like that, except if they were overrun by barbarians. About the only people who could read were monks and priests. The only books were the ones that the monks wrote by hand, so there were hardly any at all. Monks were good men, but they stayed in monestaries. Friars, or "little brothers of the poor" were men who gave away all worldly goods and went out to preach all over. They begged for the poor and the sick, and lived off what people gave them. They did what monks couldn't, and what priests didn't.

Gradually, people started buisnesses of their own along the streets: bakers, tailors, smiths, ect. Theese people started to work together and form a guild, which is like a company. They produced cheaper goods, and became rich, but lords just ignored them, because they thought a gentleman never did that kind of work.

The change from feudal lords to freedom was gradual, but sure. Some thing that helped it were: trade with Arabs, the Magna Carta, printed books, money, serfs becoming free, schools, science, stronger nations, exploring out of the known world, new inventions, and great artists. All this led to the world of today.

I didn't like this book very much. The author wrote it well, but I just don't find the middle ages very interesting.

[Home] [About Me] [Links] [Writings] [Pictures] [Scholarship] [Quotations] [Guestbook] [Writing Seminar] [Islam]

Copyright © 1996, 1997 Jo Miller djm8@cornell.edu(NO_SPAM)