Rating: 
Summary: Excellent introduction to the Middle Ages
Review: Cantor combines deft argument with enjoyable readibility to make this book an excellent introduction to the Middle Ages. An great improvement over his previous "Miedieval History" (1963), he gives greater attention to the influence of the heritage of the ancient world on what Cantor calls "the preconditioning of the medieval civilization." While one could develop this even further than he does, that would require a much longer book. Invaluable alone is the extensive bibliography for those new to the field of Medieval Studies. He separates a "short list" which would give one a crash course on medieval civilization from the "long list", providing a core bebliography in medieval studies. But the most endearing qualities of the book are not only its readibility, making it a truly enjoyable read (in contrast to most studies of the medieval period - or history texts in general), but the way he deftly explains the major events and connects them in a way that leaves the reader with a comprehensive understanding of the period rather than a depository of facts and events. Highly recommended for those with no background of the period and need a humane introduction to it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Solid Overview
Review: Cantor's "The Civilization of the Middle Ages" is a fine overview of a criminally ill-defined period. His accomplishment is even more profound when you consider, for a moment, the time span covered. Libraries are filled with volumes covering the the Roman Empire and the Renaissance, epochs that abut the medeival era. Meanwhile a full millennium of European history is marginalized and disparigangly referred to as "dark". For anyone interested in illuminating themselves in regards to some thousand years of history this is a good start. As readable and engaging as this book is, its focus on the broad sweep of history sometimes leaves much to be desired. By design the history focuses on themes and motivations and less on concrete year to year narration--a style with problems all its own. As an entry point, this is an excellent text and the helpful bibliography serves to point readers in the direction in which their curiosity has been peaked.
Rating:
Summary: Time Well Spent
Review: Cantor's book covers the civilization of the Middle Ages from ca 300 CE to 1500 CE but most of it is spent in the period from ca 500 CE to 1450 CE. It does provide, however, a good chapter on each of the following: (1) a very short summary of the classical Greek, Roman and Hebrew heritage, (2) a very short history of the early Christian church plus (3) an overview of the Roman Catholic church through Pope Gregory VII, and a short overview of the barbarian invasions that helped bring down the Roman Empire. He then used the remainder of 443 pages to describe what his view is of the process of building a civilization in Europe from the ashes of the Roman Empire and the largely illiterate population of Europe. His practice is to look at several different periods of time from both the government building,the development of the Roman Catholic church and human developments in literature, philosophy, the arts, etc. This leads to some repetition as the same people have an impact in more than one topic. For me this repetition was good as it reinforced my learning about some of the more important people and movements of the Middle Ages. It was my impression that Cantor is inclined to be much easier in his judgement of the failures of the officials of the Roman Catholic church and kings in the roles they had in suppressing the people of Europe as they pursued a goal of controlling temporal as well as the spiritual lives of Europeans. He is a good historian, however, and as he describes the activities of kings and popes, their oft times ruthless actions are detailed to the point where he contradicts his claim that historians in general have been too severe in their judgements. He clearly shows how these leaders at times formed unholy alliances for mutual support. At times he seems Nietzschean in his defense of ambitious popes, the Inquisition, and kings who were ruthless in the pursuit of their
goals of nation and church building. He does a good job of showing how the ambitions of kings and popes influenced the course of civilization. However, after having read about the horrendous behavior of the kings and nobles of England and Germany and their impact on the peasantry of France during the Hundred Years War as detailed by other authors, I was surprised that Cantor almost dismisses it as just another war in an almost continuous state of war during the Middle Ages. Like too many good books on history, this one could use some maps and some tables summarizing developments. Overall, however, this un-professional history reader enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot from it but not always from the same viewpoint as that of the author.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: Cantor, a former student of the greatest American medievalist, Joseph Strayer (whose survey book is the best there is, but is almost impossible to find), has put together the best survey of the Middle Ages in print. If you read this book and the top ten list Cantor has in the back, you will be ready to move on to more specialized topics.
Rating: 
Summary: For a specialized audience only . . .
Review: For the most part I enjoyed the book, but I started with a strong interest in the history of the middle ages. This book absolutely does NOT read like a novel as other reviewers state. "Stong narrative flow" according to one of the editorial reviews? Pullease! If so, I'd hate to read a book with a weak narrative flow. If you aren't already interested in the middle ages, this book is not for you. It is not a good survey or introduction, as other reviewers state. It focuses deeply and narrowly on church history - specifically the Roman Catholic church. It is extremely western-european centric. My goodness - the Mongols, who conquered a greater percentage of the globe than any people in history, are dismissed in 2 sentences as "the latest Asian horde" as if they were of little importance. I guess that's because they didn't conquer Western Europe? I don't mean to be overly critical, but I stress these points since I find many other reviewers to be unbalanced in their remarks in favor of the book. If you already appreciate the history of the middle ages, you will likely enjoy this book and find the author's obvious fascination with the topic and unconventional approach infectious. If not - stay away.
Rating:
Summary: I would have loved to hear the cassette, but......
Review: GEEEEZZZZ, WHAT A PRICE, as are all the cassettes.
Rating:
Summary: Needed a grad student to edit his MS!
Review: Haven't even READ the book yet, but the errors fairly drop from Cantor's pen ... Adrianople was "the first defeat of Rome by Germans"? What about Arminius's taking out 3 legions in A.D. 9? The Arabs took Constantinople? That would've surprised all the Turks who were there! And it's not "just" military history. A medievalist who can write that in Jesus "the Holy Spirit assumed form" is woefully confused about Christian dogma, which (however vain a discipline) is kind of important in writing about "the civilization of the Middle Ages." A little Googling yields several examples from other books of Cantor's carelessness with facts. I don't mean to impugn his grasp of his specialty, but don't trust any "fact" in his book unless you find it confirmed elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Needed a grad student to edit his MS!
Review: Haven't even READ the book yet, but the errors fairly drop from Cantor's pen ... Adrianople was "the first defeat of Rome by Germans"? What about Arminius's taking out 3 legions in A.D. 9? The Arabs took Constantinople? That would've surprised all the Turks who were there! And it's not "just" military history. A medievalist who can write that in Jesus "the Holy Spirit assumed form" is woefully confused about Christian dogma, which (however vain a discipline) is kind of important in writing about "the civilization of the Middle Ages." A little Googling yields several examples from other books of Cantor's carelessness with facts. I don't mean to impugn his grasp of his specialty, but don't trust any "fact" in his book unless you find it confirmed elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Accessible, enjoyable introduction to keep handy for later
Review: I was fortunate enough to buy this book the night before coming down with a nasty flu. I barely put it down and it made the ordeal tolerable. This book is definitely of an introductory nature. My father, a medievalist, read it at the same time and gave it a lukewarm approval. His main complaint was that it contained too many generalizations, but admitted they are tough to avoid in this type of survey. Now let me tell you the good part. If you know little or nothing about the middle ages and need a meaningful introduction, this is a good one. A strong point is the balance between narrative and analysis; this book tells you what happened but also why it matters. Everything is given proper context. Moreover, the book takes its title seriously; besides the standard discussion of political events, it describes the evolution of society, economy, and philosophy, key ingredients for understanding what a civilization was like. Cantor is accessible to a wide audience. For example, he gives short summaries of both Platonic and Aristotelian philosophies to help the reader better understand some of the intellectual debates of the times. I have a minor complaint with the organization of the book, which is more topical than chronological. Although this choice certainly has its merits, it makes it a little difficult for someone unfamiliar with the storyline to associate contemporary events that are treated in different chapters. This is the only aspect of the book that is at all difficult for a newcomer and certainly not a serious problem. The topical organization, however, impresses upon the reader the central themes of medieval history such as the rise and fall of the papacy and growth of national monarchies. Several popes, thinkers, and saints are memorably sketched and their contributions clearly stated. You will understand why Saint Benedict and his organization of monasteries is famous after reading this book. For those who wish to delve further, a short and long bibliography are given. My only complaint is that the long bibliography contains about 150 entries without any kind of organization, so finding a book on a given time period, topic, or location requires scanning through the entire list. I did find this book interesting enough, however, to pick up one out of the bibliography that is equally good (History of Medieval Spain by O'Callaghan). [Reviewer's background: I am a non-historian who likes to read history as a hobby. This was the first book on medieval history that I have read. I have previously read one world history survey (ancient to modern times) book.]
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of Medieval Issues
Review: Norman Cantor's book is an overview of medieval social issues for the serious student of history. The text is well suited to the intermediate level history scholar who needs to gain a broad perspective, prior to conducting more detailed analysis. The book is long, longer than it need be. At times Mr. Cantor strays from his subject matter with verbose asides. The text can also be rather dry in places. With this said, Mr. Cantor's work more than offsets these weaknesses of style by providing broad content and many excellent insights.
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