What the Middle Ages were really like...

[BaalChatzaf]

If was not the horrible nightmare portrayed by Ayn Rand:

Have a look here:

[Brant Gaede]

She didn't go into much detail.

--Brant

[George H. Smith]

According to the narrator, the Middle Ages have commonly been called the Dark Ages. Well, this may be true of people who know nothing about history, but even early medieval historians, including Enlightenment historians who had a low opinion of the Middle Ages, did not commit this error. The label "Dark Ages" was applied to Europe from roughly the sixth century to the tenth century, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire and when Europe was ravaged by Viking and Magyar invasions-- a time when commerce was at a low ebb, towns disintegrated as centers of industry and trade, and intellectual endeavors stagnated. All this began to change, however, in the eleventh century (roughly)--after which Europe experienced a significant revival of commerce, art, science, and learning (such as the "reception of Roman Law and the rise of universities and towns). Hence the common expression, long popular among historians, "the Renaissance of the Twelfth Century." (In my judgment, the term 'Renaissance' is more appropriately applied to this period than to the later and better-known Italian Renaissance.) But this period was also a time of ferocious wars, religious persecution, brutality, sickness, famine, and poverty, so we should not over-romanticize it.

In short, I have no serious problem with the substantive content of the video. Rather, I have a problem with its implicit claim to present a revisionist perspective on the Middle Ages, which is accomplished by illicitly equating the supposed myth of the Dark Ages with the Middle Ages as a whole. The true Dark Ages were in fact very dark, intellectually and culturally speaking, but this was not true of the later Middle Ages. In truth, aside from confusing the Dark Ages with the Middle Ages (as those labels have been used for centuries), the video presents an overview of the standard historical account, one that has also been around for centuries.

Ghs

[BaalChatzaf]

In short, I have no serious problem with the substantive content of the video. Rather, I have a problem with its implicit claim to present a revisionist perspective on the Middle Ages, which is accomplished by illicitly equating the supposed myth of the Dark Ages with the Middle Ages as a whole. The true Dark Ages were in fact very dark, intellectually and culturally speaking, but this was not true of the later Middle Ages. In truth, aside from confusing the Dark Ages with the Middle Ages (as those labels have been used for centuries), the video presents an overview of the standard historical account, one that has also been around for centuries.

Ghs

That is a very helpful caveat, George. As usual you are right on the mark.

Any age starring Grossteste and (Roger) Bacon cannot be all dark.

Ba'al Chatzaf