The Civilization of the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor

Īfter teaching at Princeton, Cantor became a professor at Columbia University from 1960 to 1966. He also began his teaching career at Princeton. in 1957 under the direction of eminent medievalist Joseph R. He returned to Princeton and received his Ph.D. degree (1953) from Princeton University, then spent a year as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. He moved to the United States to obtain an M.A. Life īorn in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to a Jewish family, Cantor received a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Manitoba in 1951.

He estimated that his textbook The Civilization of the Middle Ages, first published in 1963, had a million copies in circulation. Known for his accessible writing and engaging narrative style, Cantor's books were among the most widely read treatments of medieval history in English. It takes an immense body of learning and transmits it so that readers come away fully informed of the essentials of the subject, perceiving the interconnection of medieval civilization with the culture of the twentieth century and having had a good time while doing it! This is a riveting, entertaining, humorous, and learned read, compulsory for anyone concerned about the past and future of Western civilization.Norman Frank Cantor (Novem– September 18, 2004) was a Canadian-American historian who specialized in the medieval period.

Cantor makes their scholarship an intensely personal and passionate exercise, full of color and controversy, displaying the strong personalities and creative minds that brought new insights about the past.Ī revolution in academic method, this book is a breakthrough to a new way of teaching the humanities and historiography, to be enjoyed by student and general public alike. Norman Cantor focuses on the lives and works of twenty of the great medievalists of this century, demonstrating how the events of their lives, and their spiritual and emotional outlooks, influenced their interpretations of the Middle Ages. It had to be conceptually created: It had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention. The medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. In this ground-breaking work, Norman Cantor explains how our current notion of the Middle Ages-with its vivid images of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights and ladies-was born in the twentieth century. The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century

The Civilization of the Middle Ages by Norman F. Cantor