Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries

The thirteenth century gets no respect. While we obsess over the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, Walsh makes a bracing argument that the 1200s were humanity's finest hour. This is not mere contrarianism; it is a meticulously argued case for why the century that gave us Gothic cathedrals, the university as an institution, Magna Carta, and the first stirrings of constitutional government represents the pinnacle of Western civilization. Walsh dismantles the notion that medieval Europe was a cultural wasteland by showing that the century produced institutions and artworks that have endured, essentially unchanged, for seven hundred years. The Gothic cathedrals remain unmatched in architectural ambition. The university model he helped create still shapes how we think about higher learning. And the political innovations of 1215 planted seeds that would eventually flower into modern democracy. For anyone tired of the same historical narratives, this book offers a thrilling reexamination of an era we have too quickly dismissed.