内容简介
At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of
Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. Weak,
fractured, and hemmed in by hostile nations, they saw no future
beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ. But when the
world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found
themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building
a Jerusalem on earth.
In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes
this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings,
the spread of castles and the invention of knighthood. It was one
of the most significant departure points in history: the emergence
of Western Europe as a distinctive and expansionist power.