Review: The Middle Ages: A Graphic History
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Going blind into the book, I had no idea or expectations towards 'The Middle Ages' by Eleanor Janega.
For the first third of the book, we got a clear, concise, easy to understand, cliff notes version of the medieval world, following the split of the Roman Empire into West & East. I call it a cliff notes version, because a lot of events are summarized, and we get synopsis breezing through some key events which characterized the times.
Most of the book deals with what is essentially the histories of Europe, as well as some supplementary stuff that happened when they interacted with Asia & Africa.
Despite not being of said cultural background, having had some exposure to the subject, through similar academic works, many of the things described in the works were familiar to me (Although, full disclosure, the only reasons I even know the distinction between various cultural and ethnic groups of Europe, such as Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Normans, Iberians is because of reading about them in the Asterix series of comics). So, for someone diving headfirst with no context, it might be difficult to understand, and follow contextually.
The book mostly goes through several events following the schism of Rome, the sociopolitical changes brought forth, mainly due to wars, invasions, plagues, as well as the conflict between the Christian church and the ruling monarchy. In fact, a good part of the narrative deals with the various reformation movements in the church, the internal conflict they had, and how their power waxed and waned, following key historical events such as the Crusades, and the fall of Constantinople.
Up until two thirds of the book, you got a simple worded, light heartened, yet informative visual narrative in regard to what is subjectively/ objectively defined as the Middle Ages.
What broke my immersion, however, is when the author tries to cram in her own political views, especially her modern political views as someone who (I assume) prescribes to liberal politics into the narrative. Trying to draw comparisons to what happened in Europe circa Middle Ages, to the current political happenings of America.
There is no Issue with being candid about your own views and opinions in the works that you pen. But when it is crammed in artificially in a book titled 'The Middle Ages', the inclusion feels contrived and jarring.
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