The rise of Christian Europe

A very readable synoptic (originally a series of lectures) tour of the European Middle Ages which tell us why, seemingly against the odds (i.e. the encroach of Islam which, claim the author - and Pirenne - caused our Dark Age), Europe arrived in, and dominated the Modern Age. Certain ideas raised in The Rise of Christian Europe, such as the English Northumbrian monastery as a self-replicating, knowledge- and civilisation-preserving cell; the immediate basis of our Classically-based Renaissance following the Crusades, are very profound. A must-read book, Trevor-Roper's prose is also very entertaining.