Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta
Description
The Forge of Christendom is a study of a truly fateful revolution: the emergence of Western Europe for the first time as a distinctive and expansionist power. It was the age of Otto the Great and William the Conqueror, of Caliphs and Viking sea-kings, of hermits, monks, and serfs. --from publisher description.
Media reviews
" In "The Forge of Christendom," Tom Holland (whose last book, "Rubicon," traced the end of the Roman Republic) provides an entertaining account of the fraught last years of the Dark Ages, when a confused and suffering Europe contemplated the End of Days and yet, much to its surprise, woke up on
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New Year's Day 1000 to a brighter future than it could have imagined." Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member ritaer
Given that I read this twice without realizing it until I checked my book log, I cannot call it memorable. The author tries to organize his thesis about the changes in the Western Church and the role of the remenants of the Roman empire around the theme of Millennium hopes and fears. I do not feel
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that this attempt is entirely successful given that the time span examined laps so far on either side of the year 1000. Show Less
LibraryThing member abemarch
Anyone interested in history will enjoy this book. The events leading up to the year 1000, with anticipation of Christ’s return, is filled with much bloodshed. The Norsemen, the Vikings, were a ruthless bunch. Their activities were not just in Western Europe but also in the East. I was surprised
The activities of the Catholic church, all in the name of God, is full of blood-shed, fighting for control of Kings and the effort to convert everyone to Christianity in anticipation of the end times. After the millennium came and went, without the arrival of the Christ and the Anti-Christ, the movement continued with the crusades. The justification of killing and being absolved from the sins of murder was quite normal. The end justifying the means is often seen today.
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to learn that the name, “Russia” is derived from the Norsemen - “Russ” meaning “Oarsmen”. The activities of the Catholic church, all in the name of God, is full of blood-shed, fighting for control of Kings and the effort to convert everyone to Christianity in anticipation of the end times. After the millennium came and went, without the arrival of the Christ and the Anti-Christ, the movement continued with the crusades. The justification of killing and being absolved from the sins of murder was quite normal. The end justifying the means is often seen today.
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LibraryThing member jcbrunner
An enjoyable if disjointed history of some highlights of 10th and 11th century European history. Its new US title "The Forge of Christendom" is in no way warranted. The turn of the millennium (giving it its original title) is also not an important part of the narrative. Its focus lies on some
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extraordinary rulers in Germany, Italy and England, with Henry IV going to Canossa at the start and conclusion of he book. For people unaware of Canossa,1066 and all that, it might serve as a light introduction (which omits huge parts of Europe to concentrate on the already familiar). Georges Duby's L'an Mil offers more. Show Less
LibraryThing member jintster
Tom Holland has risen very quickly to become one of the UK's foremost popular historians. The rpimary reason is his ability to tell a complex story reasonably simply through sharp and lucid prose.
With his third book, he has tried to add an element of analysis to the storytelling but he doesn't
The storytelling is compelling. The first crusade, castles and terrorising castellions springing up everywhere, the collapse of Muslim Spain, Viking pirates, the Norman invasion...there's plenty of action here. Such a canvas would be too broad for many writers but Holland just about manages to keep it together although there are so many charcaters to deal with it does become a bit difficult to follow sometimes.
With his third book, he has tried to add an element of analysis to the storytelling but he doesn't
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seem wholly comfortable with it. His argument is that it was this period that saw the formal seperation of church and the state which gave rise to the distinction between Christian western Europe and Islam. However, it's not a particularly strong argument and he pursues it rather half-heartedly. The storytelling is compelling. The first crusade, castles and terrorising castellions springing up everywhere, the collapse of Muslim Spain, Viking pirates, the Norman invasion...there's plenty of action here. Such a canvas would be too broad for many writers but Holland just about manages to keep it together although there are so many charcaters to deal with it does become a bit difficult to follow sometimes.
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LibraryThing member cwhouston
This is easily the best history book I've picked up for a long time. It's tremendously readable, without feeling simplistic, and is stuffed full of details that somehow Holland manages to wrap together into a coherent whole. It summarises the history of Europe during the period commonly called 'the
This is absolutely ideal for an introduction to this period of European history and may well be appreciated by people who might ordinarily avoid non-fiction. I purchased another of his titles immediately after finishing this. Superb.
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dark ages', from the collapse of the Roman empire up to the 'first' millenium. The majority of the text then covers the remarkable events of the 11th century.This is absolutely ideal for an introduction to this period of European history and may well be appreciated by people who might ordinarily avoid non-fiction. I purchased another of his titles immediately after finishing this. Superb.
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LibraryThing member santhony
I picked up this novel after reading Holland’s Rubicon and Persian Fire, due partly to my preference for the author’s narrative style of presenting history, and partly due to the intriguing subject matter.
I’ve read a number of works on the Middle Ages and am passingly familiar with the
In this work, Holland examines the Middle Ages, roughly from the reign of Constantine to the early 12th century, through the prism of the spread of Christianity, the sometimes extreme tension between religious and secular rulers, and challenges posed by adjacent pagan and Islamic encroachment.
Whether you are a well read student of the era, or a newcomer, I can highly recommend Forge of Christendom and other historical works by this author.
I’ve read a number of works on the Middle Ages and am passingly familiar with the
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characters and the events that shaped the history of the era. Nevertheless, as he did so well in his earlier two works, Holland has a way of taking well known subject matter and giving it enough of a twist to capture the reader’s attention. In addition, his narrative style of presenting history is far preferable to the dry, textbook style utilized by many other authors.In this work, Holland examines the Middle Ages, roughly from the reign of Constantine to the early 12th century, through the prism of the spread of Christianity, the sometimes extreme tension between religious and secular rulers, and challenges posed by adjacent pagan and Islamic encroachment.
Whether you are a well read student of the era, or a newcomer, I can highly recommend Forge of Christendom and other historical works by this author.
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LibraryThing member FergusS
I found Tom Holland's book both readable and overpowering as this popular history took us from Charlemagne to the crusades via Canossa.
Readability is the delight of a Holland history. I've read Persian Fire and Rubicon and I'd read his next book, too. He seeks to capture and present the drama of
At the same time the book was overwhelming for a number of reasons. The period is quite unfamiliar to me, and so the mass of his assembled data was a challenge at times - I had to go with the flow and simply accept I wasn't going to remember all the players and places. Overwhelming, too, in scope of ideas - the seeds of the now classic division between church and state (which played itself out so unexpectedly in the West and is still a mystery to so much of the East, both near and far), the interactions between Christendom and Islam, and between the various flavours of state-based Christianity. The interplay of theology, politics and multitudinous cultures on the move in every sense you can think of also overwhelmed even as they fascinated. And at almost every stage flowed an exhausting picture of almost endless blood-lust.
But it's not a criticism to speak of such complexity - clearly the period is rich and full, and history is a demanding discipline. What Holland has done is push me to want to know more, and to resist the dismissive simplicity of a term like the Dark Ages. For that I'm grateful.
Readability is the delight of a Holland history. I've read Persian Fire and Rubicon and I'd read his next book, too. He seeks to capture and present the drama of
Show More
the history, and to tell the story with as many of its twists and turns as he is able. He manages to overcome a mistaken sense of the past as a set of dates and events following one upon the other in neat linear fashion yet without losing the coherence essential to a discipline which seeks to order and make sense of that past. At the same time the book was overwhelming for a number of reasons. The period is quite unfamiliar to me, and so the mass of his assembled data was a challenge at times - I had to go with the flow and simply accept I wasn't going to remember all the players and places. Overwhelming, too, in scope of ideas - the seeds of the now classic division between church and state (which played itself out so unexpectedly in the West and is still a mystery to so much of the East, both near and far), the interactions between Christendom and Islam, and between the various flavours of state-based Christianity. The interplay of theology, politics and multitudinous cultures on the move in every sense you can think of also overwhelmed even as they fascinated. And at almost every stage flowed an exhausting picture of almost endless blood-lust.
But it's not a criticism to speak of such complexity - clearly the period is rich and full, and history is a demanding discipline. What Holland has done is push me to want to know more, and to resist the dismissive simplicity of a term like the Dark Ages. For that I'm grateful.
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LibraryThing member Edwinrelf
It is a rollicking good read: Swashbuckling as a tale of pirates on the high seas. Whether the pirates in this are Popes and Bishops of the Church of Rome or the plundering hordes led by would be Dukes and Kings, this narrative history of the 100 years either side of 1,000 AD is told and
There is a scope to this work. Holland begins his tale with what he (and others) see as the significant event that separates church and state when the Pope cowered the King and would be Emperor at Canossa in 1077. The Pope left the penitent King outside in the snow for 3 days while the Pope considered if he would remove the spell of excommunication off the King. The ambitious Pope didn't want the Kings of Christendom to meddle in the affairs of the Church by appointing the bishops. While the stratagem didn't work immediately the matter has lingered in history and in European civilisation that separation has become a principle. The Church by insisting that it managed the spiritual, leaving the temporal power to the kings, have lucked-out on this one as time has gone on and the power of a heaven has diminished as a second Millennium has turned. Holland's point here is also about the power that the spells cast by Popes had on the mighty of the land.
Having started his tale at 1077, Holland goes back to the rise of Charlemagne in the 8th century. The arc or the book takes us from the time as the Roman West is slowly beginning to recover from the Fall of Rome; as it is coming out of the Dark Ages, up to 1099 when crusaders arrive in Jerusalem to find the antichrist hasn't returned. The descendants of those tribes who moved west in the late 4th century are beginning to move from tribalism to statehood. They begin to adopt the religion of Rome. It , after all, has significant power as its senior adherents are of the few in the land who have education; who have the skills to administer the growing kingdoms. As well The Church of Rome also has the cachet of the name ROME of the great civilisation and Empire of the Romans - (despite that for its last 200 years the Emperor of the West was in Ravenna).
Early in the book Holland tells the story that happens on the frontier as Christendom's boundary is pushed north through Saxony and Scandinavia and east into Wales and Ireland. Later he tells us the story of the Swedish Rus and the Slavs who slowly came down the Volga to create Russia and the Ukraine and link up with and adopt the religion of the East Romans of Greece. There is also much about the Scandinavians coming down the Atlantic coast and play the major role that they did in France, England and lower Italy. Skirting around the edge of his story of Christendom's foundation is the story of the Islamists and their more advanced (Persian) civilisation moving up into Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Sicily and up the leg of Italy.
Largely though the book is about the power of the religion of Christendom - the place (West Europe), and the personage of Christ in the popular imagination. Jesus doesn't get much of a look-in. Holland's book is about spin. It's about how the Church of Rome controlled the main game, led as it was during this period by a range of dubious personages - from Popes as young as 16 and 18; of times of two or more Popes; of chaps who buy their Church status positions. Amongst the bunch there were some who were pious and intelligent and others who were cleverly strategic and powerful. But there are very few who were morally good. Holland has a bit to say about the heterosexual exploits of the men of the church but nothing about their homosexual activities. This despite three or more pages on the life of Peter Damien who wrote in great detail on the extent of, and various position engaged in, of gay sex of monks in monasteries. Holland's story spends a bit of time in the great monastery of Cluny but he never mentions Damien's lifelong and passionate campaign to rid monasteries of the practice of man2man sex. I wonder if it is aversion on Holland's part or if he condones the tradition that in the Middle Ages the homosexuals did have a place of refuge in the places of the Church.
At this time in the Church of Rome's history, Holland illustrates, the principle players are deeply imbedded in the myth of Jesus as more Christ than man - certainly more Christ than Jew. Holland alludes to the promise Paul of Tarsus that Christ will come again. Holland doesn't, as the Church didn't in this period of Christendom, name Paul as the founder of Christianity. Holland does let the irony lie that the Church of Rome is built on the bones of the apostle Peter despite, as he footnotes, the idea of Peter being ever in Rome doesn't originate until AD 96 long after the chap would have been dead. But, the return of Christ and the forecasts in the Book of Revelation are the crux on which Holland sees the age of the Millennium turn. Chaps have visions a plenty! Brutes like St Olaf in Sweden become miracle bending saints soon after death. Fear spreads in the land as one or another person, or race, or phenomena is the Antichrist or a sign of the Antichrist. People believe as fact that they have to endure the this non-Christ before they will all leave the world behind and head for heaven. With so much mind control going on it is no wonder of the fantastical nature of the visions not only believed in by the imaginer but by whole populations who hear the story. The 'fact' of an hereafter and the Church of Rome as the issuer of passports to that place give the Church enormous power.
Sometime in the 6th century the Church of Rome - and thus Christendom - started counting time from what was thought the year of Jesus' birth. By the 6th century the surname 'Christ' had been firmly affixed as had the story that Jesus' principle apostle Peter had come to and died in Rome where 'fact'. It was a popular notion throughout Christendom that the end of time would be on the one thousandth anniversary of Jesus' birth and when that didn't happen it would be on one of any other significant one thousandth anniversary - the passion, the death ..even up until Jerusalem was reclaimed by the West's Christians. But it didn't happen. The final line in Holland's book as the penitents looked to the Temple Mount "Antichrist did not appear".
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illustrated with copious bits of dirt in the background lives of the main players. It is salutary to realise how recent in Europe is the arrival of civilisation and learning. There is a scope to this work. Holland begins his tale with what he (and others) see as the significant event that separates church and state when the Pope cowered the King and would be Emperor at Canossa in 1077. The Pope left the penitent King outside in the snow for 3 days while the Pope considered if he would remove the spell of excommunication off the King. The ambitious Pope didn't want the Kings of Christendom to meddle in the affairs of the Church by appointing the bishops. While the stratagem didn't work immediately the matter has lingered in history and in European civilisation that separation has become a principle. The Church by insisting that it managed the spiritual, leaving the temporal power to the kings, have lucked-out on this one as time has gone on and the power of a heaven has diminished as a second Millennium has turned. Holland's point here is also about the power that the spells cast by Popes had on the mighty of the land.
Having started his tale at 1077, Holland goes back to the rise of Charlemagne in the 8th century. The arc or the book takes us from the time as the Roman West is slowly beginning to recover from the Fall of Rome; as it is coming out of the Dark Ages, up to 1099 when crusaders arrive in Jerusalem to find the antichrist hasn't returned. The descendants of those tribes who moved west in the late 4th century are beginning to move from tribalism to statehood. They begin to adopt the religion of Rome. It , after all, has significant power as its senior adherents are of the few in the land who have education; who have the skills to administer the growing kingdoms. As well The Church of Rome also has the cachet of the name ROME of the great civilisation and Empire of the Romans - (despite that for its last 200 years the Emperor of the West was in Ravenna).
Early in the book Holland tells the story that happens on the frontier as Christendom's boundary is pushed north through Saxony and Scandinavia and east into Wales and Ireland. Later he tells us the story of the Swedish Rus and the Slavs who slowly came down the Volga to create Russia and the Ukraine and link up with and adopt the religion of the East Romans of Greece. There is also much about the Scandinavians coming down the Atlantic coast and play the major role that they did in France, England and lower Italy. Skirting around the edge of his story of Christendom's foundation is the story of the Islamists and their more advanced (Persian) civilisation moving up into Spain, North Africa, Egypt, Sicily and up the leg of Italy.
Largely though the book is about the power of the religion of Christendom - the place (West Europe), and the personage of Christ in the popular imagination. Jesus doesn't get much of a look-in. Holland's book is about spin. It's about how the Church of Rome controlled the main game, led as it was during this period by a range of dubious personages - from Popes as young as 16 and 18; of times of two or more Popes; of chaps who buy their Church status positions. Amongst the bunch there were some who were pious and intelligent and others who were cleverly strategic and powerful. But there are very few who were morally good. Holland has a bit to say about the heterosexual exploits of the men of the church but nothing about their homosexual activities. This despite three or more pages on the life of Peter Damien who wrote in great detail on the extent of, and various position engaged in, of gay sex of monks in monasteries. Holland's story spends a bit of time in the great monastery of Cluny but he never mentions Damien's lifelong and passionate campaign to rid monasteries of the practice of man2man sex. I wonder if it is aversion on Holland's part or if he condones the tradition that in the Middle Ages the homosexuals did have a place of refuge in the places of the Church.
At this time in the Church of Rome's history, Holland illustrates, the principle players are deeply imbedded in the myth of Jesus as more Christ than man - certainly more Christ than Jew. Holland alludes to the promise Paul of Tarsus that Christ will come again. Holland doesn't, as the Church didn't in this period of Christendom, name Paul as the founder of Christianity. Holland does let the irony lie that the Church of Rome is built on the bones of the apostle Peter despite, as he footnotes, the idea of Peter being ever in Rome doesn't originate until AD 96 long after the chap would have been dead. But, the return of Christ and the forecasts in the Book of Revelation are the crux on which Holland sees the age of the Millennium turn. Chaps have visions a plenty! Brutes like St Olaf in Sweden become miracle bending saints soon after death. Fear spreads in the land as one or another person, or race, or phenomena is the Antichrist or a sign of the Antichrist. People believe as fact that they have to endure the this non-Christ before they will all leave the world behind and head for heaven. With so much mind control going on it is no wonder of the fantastical nature of the visions not only believed in by the imaginer but by whole populations who hear the story. The 'fact' of an hereafter and the Church of Rome as the issuer of passports to that place give the Church enormous power.
Sometime in the 6th century the Church of Rome - and thus Christendom - started counting time from what was thought the year of Jesus' birth. By the 6th century the surname 'Christ' had been firmly affixed as had the story that Jesus' principle apostle Peter had come to and died in Rome where 'fact'. It was a popular notion throughout Christendom that the end of time would be on the one thousandth anniversary of Jesus' birth and when that didn't happen it would be on one of any other significant one thousandth anniversary - the passion, the death ..even up until Jerusalem was reclaimed by the West's Christians. But it didn't happen. The final line in Holland's book as the penitents looked to the Temple Mount "Antichrist did not appear".
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LibraryThing member SChant
A readable history of Europe around the first christian millenium. The spread of names and places was a bit confusing at times, and I thought the "Millenium" reference was a bit of a stretch when the timespan covered around 400 years, but all-in-all very enjoyable.
LibraryThing member stillatim
A classic example of the 'don't expect Barolo when you're drinking Vinho Verde' class; this is airplane history and as such quite successful- easy to read and rollicking tales, backed up by little analysis and couched as a tendentious and quite frankly pointless 'argument.' All you need to know
On the other hand, if you're expecting history that will explain why things happen, or that gets details correct, or that will debunk rather than reinforce hoary legends, this will taste like really bad soft drink. Expect a lightly fizzy white wine, on the other hand, and it'll cool you off pleasantly.
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about this book can be learned from the titles: in Australia and the UK, it's called 'Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom.' In the U.S., it's called 'The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West.' Why change the title like that? Is it about Millennarian tension? Is it about something called 'The West,' whatever that might be? Is it about the forging of Christendom (i.e., the creation of it) or Christendom's forge (where, presumably, Christendom makes things?) No. The only reason to read this book is to meet or meet again fabulous characters like Robert Guiscard, the Ottonians, William the Conqueror and Matilda of Tuscany. Read as such, it's fun, despite the lip-curling cliches (how many times can we be told that someone is a chip off the old block?) Expect that, and have some fun- with a great bibliography attached. On the other hand, if you're expecting history that will explain why things happen, or that gets details correct, or that will debunk rather than reinforce hoary legends, this will taste like really bad soft drink. Expect a lightly fizzy white wine, on the other hand, and it'll cool you off pleasantly.
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LibraryThing member Chris_El
Overall this book delivered what it promised. An overview of Europe developing into Christendom. Reasonably well written aside from some odd comments from the author every once in while (mentioning middle earth at one point in describing something for example). The most interesting part for me was
Basically a Christian king was to establish a Christian nation on earth and then in Jerusalem, lay down his crown, and Christ would decend from heaven. While the author does not spend a lot of time connecting the dots about how that mindset helped make the Crusades reasonable and attractive to the common man (and uncommon member of Christendom) the dots are there.
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the discussion of what people beleived about the end times (end of the world) and how that mindset influenced people. Basically a Christian king was to establish a Christian nation on earth and then in Jerusalem, lay down his crown, and Christ would decend from heaven. While the author does not spend a lot of time connecting the dots about how that mindset helped make the Crusades reasonable and attractive to the common man (and uncommon member of Christendom) the dots are there.
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LibraryThing member igorterleg
This was a very well, magnificently perhaps, researched a work. For what is described herein, was indeed a turning point in the history of Europe. And not Europe alone, to be sure, the entire world would look now different, unrecognisable even, had those events unfolded some other way than they
The author, well learned and versed in history, is not just a historian, yet also a proficient fiction writer, which is felt throughout the entire work. For, unlike most history books, or indeed any non-fiction books, this is one so full of stories and anecdotes told in so sophisticated a style, that it makes a humble reader think that what could be written in as much as one hundred, or perhaps maybe one hundred and fifty pages so was expanded into four hundred and seventy six, or, in the Doubleday edition, a staggering five hundred and twelve pages of text.
I must note here and now that I am in no way opposed to spicing a non-fiction book with an anecdote here and there. Yet these should never be allowed out of control, let alone overwhelm so vastly what, save the anecdotes, the author is trying to tell. Alas, this exactly is what is to be found in this otherwise splendid work.
I would most probably feel inclined, compelled even to award this book five stars, since four would not be enough, had it concentrated less on embellishments and more on the most important events. Yet as it is, I am awarding the mere three stars, thus taking entire two away for so high an elevation of style over substance.
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did. Not something to be taken lightly, the very idea of the separation of Church and State, while pronounced for the first time centuries before, was but a dream, an idle hope. It was only when the Millennium came and went, yet the world still was there, that the Popes' could at the very last think of turning this wild vision, this Libertas Ecclesiae unattainable to date, into the very reality.The author, well learned and versed in history, is not just a historian, yet also a proficient fiction writer, which is felt throughout the entire work. For, unlike most history books, or indeed any non-fiction books, this is one so full of stories and anecdotes told in so sophisticated a style, that it makes a humble reader think that what could be written in as much as one hundred, or perhaps maybe one hundred and fifty pages so was expanded into four hundred and seventy six, or, in the Doubleday edition, a staggering five hundred and twelve pages of text.
I must note here and now that I am in no way opposed to spicing a non-fiction book with an anecdote here and there. Yet these should never be allowed out of control, let alone overwhelm so vastly what, save the anecdotes, the author is trying to tell. Alas, this exactly is what is to be found in this otherwise splendid work.
I would most probably feel inclined, compelled even to award this book five stars, since four would not be enough, had it concentrated less on embellishments and more on the most important events. Yet as it is, I am awarding the mere three stars, thus taking entire two away for so high an elevation of style over substance.
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LibraryThing member quiBee
Didn't enjoy it as much as Persian Fire, but a satisfying read on a period I didn't know much about.
LibraryThing member robeik
Millennium covers a largely unfamiliar piece of history for me - the +/- 200 years from 1000AD. It was a time when people were reading their Bibles (actually the reading was being done for them) and expecting the return of Jesus and the end of the world. It was a dreadful time to be sure, but it
Tom Holland writes history not as a collection of facts, but as an essay, interpreting and illustrating as he goes along. My problem (and it's mine) is that it does not suit my reading style - the sentences are quite long, and I appear the have the attention span of a gnat.
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appears that many ignored the advice of Augustine that the time of the return could not be predicted.Tom Holland writes history not as a collection of facts, but as an essay, interpreting and illustrating as he goes along. My problem (and it's mine) is that it does not suit my reading style - the sentences are quite long, and I appear the have the attention span of a gnat.
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Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2008
ISBN
9783608943795