The Discovery of the Middle Ages: The Story of an Illusion

Delight in The Discovery of the Middle Ages: The Story of an Illusion

The Discovery of the Middle Ages: The Story of an Illusion
by Peter Raedts

This book analyzes the history of the Middle Ages from the perspective of reception history. Especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, images of the Middle Ages continually changed in their social perception.

Until the end of the 18th century, the Middle Ages seemed to be a dark and barbaric period between antiquity and the Enlightenment. But then this idea changed. Suddenly, the medieval world was attributed structures of solidarity and mutual responsibility. What had happened?

Historian Peter Raedts shows in his captivating summary that it wasn't new knowledge but new social conditions that brought about this change. Using numerous voices from well-known thinkers and writers such as Novalis, Adam Smith, Voltaire, and Herder, the author shows how an era became a projection surface for the ideals of the respective time. And not only in Germany, but also in England, France, and Italy.

the author:
Peter Raedts (*1948) is a professor of medieval history at the University of Nijmegen. He completed his doctorate at Oxford on the medieval theologian Richard Rufus of Cornwall. The Discovery of the Middle Ages is considered his magnum opus.

- hardcover
- 431 pages
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