Powers and Thrones : A New History of the Middle Ages

"From the bestselling author of The Templars, Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. Dan Jones's epic new history tells nothing less than the story of how the world we know today came to be built. It is a thousand-year adventure that moves from the ruins of the once-mighty city of Rome, sacked by barbarians in AD 410, to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century. It shows how, from a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. The book identifies three key themes that underpinned the success of the West: commerce, conquest and Christianity. Across 16 chapters, blending Dan Jones' trademark gripping narrative style with authoritative analysis, Powers and Thrones shows how, at each stage in this story, successive western powers thrived by attracting - or stealing - the most valuable resources, ideas and people from the rest of the world. It casts new light on iconic locations - Rome, Paris, Venice, Constantinople - and it features some of history's most famous and notorious men and women. This is a book written about - and for - an age of profound change, and it asks the biggest questions about the West both then and now. Where did we come from? What made us? Where do we go from here? PRAISE FOR DAN JONES: 'Exhilarating, epic, sword-swinging history ... A skilful storyteller ... He enlivens the narrative with bloodcurdling details and arresting turns of phrase ... There is also fine scholarly intuition' TLS 'Jones carries the Templars through the crusades with clarity and verve. This is unabashed narrative history, fast-paced and full of incident ... Jones tells their story extremely well' Sunday Times 'Stonking narrative history told with pace, wit and scholarship' Observer"