Author Description

Later medieval Europe saw a great deal of change and expansion of different kinds. This geographically broad textbook explores these events in a series of core chapters on the different countries, covering the Holy Roman Empire, East-Central Europe, Scandinavia and Russia. It looks not only at political history but also at economy, society and culture, including art, architecture, literature and music. North shows the significance of the different lines of development that each country/region experienced, thereby offering a very important corrective to the usual western-European focus that characterizes other textbooks in the field. In this way he demonstrates that Europe did not consist of a core and periphery, but of different regions that had divergent developments, and makes sense of these various patterns of historical change. A review of current research debates also introduces readers to the most up to date discussions in the field.