Awakening: A History of the Western Mind AD 500 - 1700

The Awakening is a monumental and exhilarating history of European thought, from the fall of Rome in the fifth century AD to the Scientific Revolution thirteen centuries later. It traces the recovery and refashioning of Europe's classical heritage, the preservation of surviving texts, the revival of philosophy, the Renaissance, the encounter with the New World, and the resulting maritime supremacy. Charles Freeman provides a vital key to understanding the world we live in today, with a stimulating and erudite book that is written with great elan and courage. The Awakening recounts the slow evolution of Western thought that restored legitimacy to independent examination and analysis, leading to a celebration of reason over blind faith. Freeman reminds us that quality, engaging narrative history has not gone extinct and that it is possible to produce a work that is well-written and readable by a general audience while meeting the rigorous standards of scholarship demanded by academia.

Format: Hardback
Length: 816 pages
Publication date: 06 August 2020
Publisher: Head of Zeus

The Awakening is a monumental and exhilarating history of European thought, spanning from the fall of Rome in the fifth century AD to the Scientific Revolution thirteen centuries later. The book traces the recovery and refashioning of Europe's classical heritage from the ruins of the Roman Empire, strengthened under the Christian empire founded by Charlemagne in the eighth century and later during the High Middle Ages, when universities were founded and the study of philosophy was revived. Renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman thought provided the intellectual impetus for the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, whose ideas—aesthetic, political, and scientific—were disseminated across Europe by the invention of the printing press. Equally momentous was Europe's encounter with the New World, and the resulting maritime supremacy which conferred global reach on Europe's merchants and colonists. The Awakening is a vivid and detailed account of the development of Western thought, informed by the latest scholarship. It is not driven by the fate of kings or the clash of arms but by deeper currents of thought, inquiry, and discovery that first recover and then surpass the achievements of classical antiquity, leading the West to the threshold of the Age of Reason. Charles Freeman takes the reader on an enthralling journey, providing a vital key to understanding the world we live in today. Praise for The Awakening: The subject of this stimulating and erudite book is nothing less than the development of the Western mind from the demise of classical civilisation in the fifth century AD, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. The Awakening is a work of serious scholarship by an author who has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the history of Western thought.

Weight: 1648g
Dimension: 242 x 170 x 61 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781789545623