fil's review against another edition
2.0
A very dry, very boring history of western Europe during the years leading up to 1000 CE (and a bit more). Collins used a regional approach instead of a linear one, the result was a back and forth skipping of dates. In itself, this is not a problem but it was clumsily done and was not written as a well-integrated, comprehensive whole.
Collins’ religiosity was a real nuisance though. It sucks when I can guess the author is a deist of some kind (before checking his profile), some of his comments were off-putting. His faith shone through at times, which is not welcome when discussing history and facts. Besides that, the style of writing was not conductive to enjoyable reading, which is super disappointing considering reading about history is a usually pleasant pastime of mine.
I'll end with a note on geography: the Iberian peninsula is, now, Spain and Portugal (and Andorra, depending on who you ask). Collins writes 'Spain' (which did not exist then anyway) when he meant to say 'Iberian peninsula'.
Collins’ religiosity was a real nuisance though. It sucks when I can guess the author is a deist of some kind (before checking his profile), some of his comments were off-putting. His faith shone through at times, which is not welcome when discussing history and facts. Besides that, the style of writing was not conductive to enjoyable reading, which is super disappointing considering reading about history is a usually pleasant pastime of mine.
I'll end with a note on geography: the Iberian peninsula is, now, Spain and Portugal (and Andorra, depending on who you ask). Collins writes 'Spain' (which did not exist then anyway) when he meant to say 'Iberian peninsula'.
essemmarr's review
4.0
Very good, detailed, readable overview of a weird fuckin' century. Worth it for the Cadaver Pope interlude alone.
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