A.D. 1000: A World on the Brink of Apocalypse

By Richard Erdoes

Book Overview

A brilliant history of the occurances in Europe as the year 1000 approached. The frenzy and terror of that time parallels with our own troubled times as the year 2000 draws near. Illustrated. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566198321
• ISBN13: 9781566198325
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A long time ago...

As Karen Armstrong says in her introduction, the year 1000 was a very different world, one that would never have believed that the global triumph of the West would take place in the next 1000 years. There were no cohesive nations of long standing; the Roman Empire's collapse hundreds of years prior remained the defining influence, and even consolidations under the likes of Charlemagne would not change the fact that half of...

Easy to read and wonderfully written

I am not one to write a reviews but this book deserved one. When I buy history books I read the chapters that pertain to what I need them for and nothing else. This book however was different. I was pleased as I began to read it that it covered a lot of everyday life as well as church and war life. This was perfect, I was so excited. It really gave me a feel for the time period and how it was to live there, he was so...

Entertaining and interesting but badly edited.

A vivid and entertaining look at the life and times of the people living in Europe at the end of the first millenium. The book reads like a serious version of Monty Python's "The Holy Grail". Lots of historical factoids, gritty and sometimes disturbing descriptions of tenth century lifestyles, and complicated narratives of religious and political intrigue.The only negative I found is that the book, or at least the edition...

Very entertaining!

I am not a professional historian, so I cannot comment on the veracity of Mr. Erdoes's description of Europe at the last millennium, but if one-tenth of what he says is true, it was a pretty horrifying place. The book is in a sense a biography of Gerbert of Aurillac, who was to become Pope Sylvester II, the pope who presided over midnight mass in St. Peter's at Rome on December 31, 999. Gerbert's life is used as a centerpiece...

Closest thing to time travel

The author portrays the life of a medieval French monk, Gerbert d'Aurillac, as he struggles to obtain the highest office in Christianity. Characters and events in Europe at the turn of the millenium come alive to reveal a brilliant snapshot of this critical time in history. It is the closest thing to time travel. The book is reminiscient of Tuchmann's "A Distant Mirror" yet seems to paint even a warmer portrait of individuals...