Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom

"With an epic sweep that transports us from the crucifixion to the First Crusade, and from the glitter of Constantinople to the bleak shores of Canada, Millennium 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. It witnessed the spread of castles, the invention of knighthood and the founding of a papal monarchy. Above all, it brought people to dread that the end days might be at hand, and yet also - with an effort so prodigious that it has the power to move us still - to invent themselves anew."--Jacket.