Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Powers and Thrones is a history of the Middle Ages, and in my opinion, is one of the best single-volume histories of this period. I think it must be a difficult task to write a history of the Middle Ages, mainly because so much happens in this 900 to 1000 years that you can’t possible include everything of interest. So there is always the tradeoff between general information and specific events. And I think the author has done an excellent job of maintaining the balance between the “big picture” and events and people which are familiar to most readers.

The focus is on Europe from the fall of the western Roman Empire until the Reformation. The author has organized the book around topics, while maintaining a more or less chronological order. Each chapter covers a topic, for example the Black Death or the Byzantines, and the topics are cross-referenced as needed.

I liked that the author really developed the story of the Arabs; often they are only discussed in terms of the Crusades. And I enjoyed the chapter on the Mongols. I think I really learned something about them.

If you’re interested in this period of history, I strongly recommend this book.