The Two Cities

First published to wide critical acclaim in 1992, 'The Two Cities' has become an essential text to students of Medieval history.

First published to wide critical acclaim in 1992, The Two Cities has become an essential text for students of medieval history. For the second edition, the author has thoroughly revised each chapter, bringing the material up to date and taking the historiography of the past decade into account.

The Two Cities covers a colourful period from the schism between the eastern and western churches to the death of Dante. It encompasses key topics such as:

the Crusades

the expansionist force of the Normans

major developments in the way kings, emperors and Popes exercised their powers

a great flourishing of art and architecture

the foundation of the very first universities.


Running through it all is the defining characteristic of the high Middle Ages: the delicate relationship between the spiritual and secular worlds, the two 'cities' of the title.

This survey provides all the facts and background information that students need, and is defined into straightforward thematic chapters. It makes extensive use of primary sources, and makes new trends in research accessible to students. Its fresh approach gives students the most rounded, lively and integrated view of the high Middle Ages available.

Part 1: The Social and Economic Structure 1. The Physical Environment 2. Social Structure 3. Economic Development Part 2: The Papacy 4. The Papacy 5. The Crusades 6. Monasticism and the Friars 7. Popular Religion and Heresy Part 3: Political Change 8. The Empire 9. The Kingdom of Sicily 10. The Italian City-States 11. The Capetian Monarchy 12. The Kingdom of England 13. The Iberian Kingdoms 14. The States of Eastern and Northern Europe 15. The Crusader States Part 4: Perceptions of the World 16. The Medieval World View 17. Intellectual Life 18. Art and Society 19. Western Christendom and the Wider World