The Middle Ages, Volume I: Sources of Medieval History

This two-volume collection is intended for use in college history courses and was prepared to accompany Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 300-1475, by Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter. It can be used equally well with any of the popular textbooks in the field. The Sources are drawn from many different kinds of medieval materials. The Readings include essays on social, economic, political, religious and intellectual history. Some of the modern readings are controversial. One or two of them seem thoroughly wrong-headed. But they are all writings that students have enjoyed reading and arguing over. Other sections are intended to illustrate diversity rather than disagreement--to show the various ways in which historians with different backgrounds and interests approach the same set of problems.