The crucible of the Middle Ages : the ninth and tenth centuries in European history

Very good, very concise history of the period- I've been trying to work out exactly what happened in the 9th and 10th centuries from other bad, flabby books. I should have started with this one. Barraclough tells a good narrative when he needs to, deals with important historical cruces when it

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seems worthwhile, and the book has lots of nice pictures. Be aware that this isn't social history or cultural history: it's about the big names (I mean, they're not that big. They didn't get called the Dark Ages for nothing) and how power was taken, imposed and lost. But in 160 odd pages, what more could you want? Livelier prose, maybe? A little more on the growth of the Eastern European states? A little less on the origins of British political units? Well yes.
Geez I'm hard to please.

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