Medieval World (Usborne World History) by Jane Bingham

Medieval World (Usborne World History) Reviews

• 
  Skrivena stranica

  I've read this in French and it's really a nice simple book with great illustrations.
• 
  Jacob

  Good book with good illustrations but unfortunately half of the book is not about mediaeval Europe but more focused on the pre age of discovery contenients like the americas and Oceania.
• 
  Julianna

  Reviewed for
  THC Reviews
  Medieval World is a non-fiction book aimed at middle school readers that provides an overview of the Medieval period of history from about 500-1500 AD. It covers European historical events starting with the Byzantine Empire and traveling through the centuries to include Viking conquests, the rise of Anglo-Saxons in England and their later defeat by the Normans, as well as Charlemagne’s Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. It discusses the roles of knights, nobles, and peasants, along with what life was like in castles, villages, and towns. It tells of pilgrimages, the Crusades, and the Black Death. It also branches out to relate events in other parts of the world as well, including the Middle East, Africa, India, China, and Japan. Then it takes readers to North and South American, where we learns of the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas, as well as other Indigenous peoples. Then it wraps up with a discussion of the art, ideas, and inventions of the Renaissance period and the voyages of several famous explorers. It also has a glossary and is fully indexed, in addition to providing a handy timeline chart that shows how these events were happening in different parts of the world at the same time.
  
  Medieval World is an excellent overview of the major events and players in the Medieval period of history. While it doesn’t go into great depth about these events, with each one only encompassing a page or two, it is very well put together. It must have been difficult to decide which events to include from a thousand years of world history, but I thought the author did a great job of choosing the most important ones and synopsizing each in such a way as to be understandable to the book’s target audience. Each page (or two) has a handy timeline to let the reader know what years are being covered and color coding to tell where in the world these things took place, as well as a map of the area being discussed for visualization and an important dates box to pare it down to a bare-bones quick reference. The book is also beautifully illustrated, not only with images of world leaders and other events, but also with detailed drawings of homes and villages, etc. to show what day-to-day life was like. These illustrations include cutaways to “see inside” and little side notes to show where things are located or to better describe what’s happening.
  
  I also loved the diversity of the book. As a Caucasian person of European decent, when I hear the word medieval, I typically think of knights, castles, tournaments, and such, but of course there’s so much more than that. This book provides plenty of those things, but I was thrilled to discover that it also explores this period of history all over the world and how the different groups of people came to explore, trade, or learn more about each other. I thought this gave the book a very holistic and well-rounded feel. The only concerning thing I found is that it does talk about wars and people being killed and sometimes this is depicted in the illustrations as well. However, it’s usually no more than a brief mention, and aside from one bloody picture showing Aztecs making human sacrifices, I didn’t notice anything else particularly graphic, so overall, I’d say it’s appropriate for the middle-schoolers at which it’s aimed. Medieval World was an interesting read that I would definitely recommend for the young history buff. It even taught me a few things as an adult. I think it could also be a great way to gauge a child’s interest in certain events, providing a jumping off point for more in-depth learning. Medieval World is part of the Usborne World History series that has left me very interested in checking out the other periods of history that are covered in this series.
• 
  Amanda

  This 96 page volume features high quality pages with full color timelines, artwork, jewels, cut-aways, portraits and more. Each page spread covers an era of sorts within the Middle Ages - this book covers more than Europe too! The focus is on what happened in Europe because that is where we have the most knowledge of what happened, but Africa, Asia, and the Americas are not forgotten - neither are Australia and surrounding Islands. There are couple unnecessary references to times in Oceania that are well before the Middle Ages (things happening 40,000 years ago), but on the whole the information is succinctly and well presented to provide an overview of the highlights of this time. The Renaissance is mentioned at the end and given a few pages which surprised me since I expected that time would be in its own book. A handy resource to have available - will provide a good springboard to learning more about the different reigns and wars of that time.
• 
  Belle Meade School

  909.0
• 
  Lana

  Fascinating. Such an interesting and fun book. So much fun I am going to give it to my Grandson to read. A lot of what was written in the book I was unaware of such as; the rise of Islam and its spread. Seems as though both Christianity and Muslims have been in tug of war for 1,000's of years. Must be the two oldest religions around.
  
  And by all the travels and conquering that when on for decades we are not pure blood anything. We are all a mixture of something. Blacks are not all blacks, whites are not all white so racism is a ridiculous notion brought on by man to create chaos. We are all different though we may have more of one gene than another over the years we are all brothers.
  
  This book has been very enlightening for me and I originally bought it for kids.
• 
  Casey

  Great informative book for children. Illistrations and short blips of text on every page, incorporates technology by linking data to internet sources. Reminds me of the Eyewitness books I loved as a kid. Awesomely includes many different areas of the world besides just Europe, though shorter sections devoted. Shows other races as the "good guys" just as often as white Europeans. Would love to have in a classroom.
• 
  Gregory

  It is a good little history books for young people. It is good about trying to share things from all over the world. My one gripe is that I think it is sometimes a little to skimpy on details. At the very least it should give the same level or detail to all subjects.
• 
  Diane Baima

  I really was enjoying this book to recommend to my students until I got to the history of Russia. It explained Kievan Rus as Russia. My students would not stand for that! That made me wonder how many other simplifications there were in the book that overlooked different cultures.
• 
  Eli

  This book has a good learning experience.
• 
  Katie

  Seriously awesome book ... one everyone should have in their home library. Informative, entertaining. Great overview of history.
• 
  Abraham Ray

  I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
  
  http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12942880
• 
  Sharon

  colourful and educational in a simple facts way, this is a good book to teach children about the medieval period in different parts of the world.
• 
  Belle Meade School

  909.07