This author explored the broad contours of Western history and the landscape of academic medieval studies across Europe and North America. While academic reviews were often mixed, his books frequently became bestsellers, thanks to a fluid, often colloquial writing style and lively critiques of figures and ideas. Though intellectually conservative and skeptical of methodological fads, he advocated for greater inclusion of women and minorities in historical narratives. His work often reflected on his complex relationship with academia and the evolution of historical thought.
This book, first published in 1970, examines significant protest movements of the twentieth century and looks at the similarities and differences between the various dissents and rebellions. It discusses the emergence of protest as an ideal, a viable force for reform.
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Describes Alexander's relations with his parents, his Oedipal complex and his bisexuality. This book shows Alexander's attempts to bridge the East and West, the Greek and Persian worlds, especially using Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War, as his model. It explores Alexander's view of himself in relation to the pagan gods of Greece and Egypt.
Arguably the greatest biomedical disaster in history, the Black Death wiped out 40% of Europe's population, rocking the foundations of medieval civilisation. Leading medieval historian Norman F. Cantor offers a social history of the Black Death
Ring around the rosies,A pocketful of posies,Ashes, ashes,We all fall down.—"Ring Around the Rosies," a children's rhyme about the Black DeathThe Black Death was the fourteenth century's equivalent of a nuclear war. It wiped out one-third of Europe's population, taking some 20 million lives. And yet, most of what we know about it is wrong. The details of the Plague etched in the minds of terrified schoolchildren—the hideous black welts, the high fever, and the awful end by respiratory failure—are more or less accurate. But what the Plague really was and how it made history remain shrouded in a haze of myths.Now, Norman Cantor, the premier historian of the Middle Ages, draws together the most recent scientific discoveries and groundbreaking historical research to pierce the mist and tell the story of the Black Death as a gripping, intimate narrative.
This study contains almost 150 written texts in the form of short stories, essays, novels, biographies and memoirs to give the reader an insight into every aspect of Jewish life and experience. It includes contributions from many well-known Jews including Anne Frank, Philip Roth, and Franz Kafka.
A fascinating look at life in the Middle Ages that focuses on eight extraordinary medieval men and women through realistically invented conversations between them and their counterparts.
Now revised and expanded, this edition of the splendidly detailed and lively history of the Middle Ages contains more than 30 percent new material.
Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century 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 medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. It had to be conceptually created: It had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention. 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. 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. A 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. 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.
«In Twentieth-Century Culture, Norman Cantor has undertaken the formidable task of explaining, separately, and in their interaction, the major intellectual and cultural movements of our era. To this courageous enterprise Cantor brings extraordinary intelligence, wit, and passion. It will be a rare reader who does not disagree - even disagree vehemently - with some of Cantor's strong opinions, and an even rarer one who does not come away from this book instructed, stimulated, and enlightened.» (Robert W. Hanning, Columbia University)