Publisher's Weekly Review
Western Europe claws its way out of the Dark Ages-just barely-in this hair-raising history. Collins, formerly a Catholic priest, surveys the century or so after Charlemagne's empire collapsed into civil war and anarchy, a time when government was a protection racket run by petty warlords, Viking and Muslim raiders pillaged and slaughtered, and popes comported themselves like Roman gang leaders. Amid a panorama of local vendettas and parochial power plays, Collins discerns movements toward a renewed order, initiated by Church reformers and farsighted statesmen, particularly the Saxon kings and queens who knitted Germany into a functioning state and resurrected the Holy Roman Empire. Writing with a supple prose and an eye for colorful detail and vivid characters, Collins shapes some of history's most appalling behavior-first prize might go to Pope Steven VI, who exhumed his predecessor's rotting corpse and placed it on trial for heresy-into a lively narrative with a comprehensible story line. Behind the blood-lettings and betrayals of medieval politics, he sketches an illuminating interpretation of a society and worldview shaped by insecurity, superstition, and personal loyalties. The result is a fascinating account of how a desperate struggle for survival bequeathed a civilization. 8 maps. Agent: Mary Cunnane, the Mary Cunnane Agency. (Feb. 12) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A lively, full-to-bursting history of the turbulent 10th century in Europe, when inner dissention and external marauding began to give way to cohesion and centrality. Australian nonpracticing Catholic priest and historian Collins manages to enthrall readers in the vicissitudes of an early medieval era marked by random violence and unpronounceable Nordic names via his thorough knowledge of the epoch and ability to spin an engaging tale. While giving the brilliant learning of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) its due, he agrees with Thomas Cahill that the Irish and specifically monks indeed "saved civilization" by their stewardship and dissemination of Latin and Greek learning. Collins presents chaotic upheaval across Europe in an organized and riveting fashion. He provides a rich depiction of the physical landscape, which was experiencing a medieval warm period, allowing the Vikings to settle Greenland in the 980s after the North Atlantic sea ice had retreated. He recaps the important democratic shifts and religious conversions thanks to the inroads of Charlemagne in northern Europe and the Muslims in the south; notes the destabilizing terror struck constantly by the marauding Vikings, Saracens and Magyars; delineates the messy and increasingly dangerous papacy; and one by one takes up the dramas of important galvanizing leaders who emerged to impose some sense of order and centrality of government, even if briefly--e.g., the Saxon king Otto I, King Alfred in England and Brian Boru in Ireland. Along with stories about the likes of Liutprand of Cremona, Otto's diplomat, the remarkable regent queen Theophano and polymath Gerbert of Aurillac (aka Pope Sylvester II), Collins also explores the lives of ordinary people in a convulsive time. Who knew the 10th century could be so compelling?]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Under the Carolingian rulers, and especially under Charlemagne, medieval western Europe enjoyed a period of relative political stability and a modest cultural renaissance. After the death of Charlemagne, in 814, much of the area reverted to internecine internal wars while Viking raiders plundered both coastal and inland regions. Collins, an ordained Catholic priest and radio and TV presenter, asserts that the tenth century brought order out of this chaos, transformed the basic institutions of medieval society, and laid the foundations for the future nation-states of western Europe. Although the apogee of the temporal power of the Papacy would come two centuries later, Collins illustrates how the church played an essential role in the achievements of the tenth century, which included forming a largely successful working relationship with Germanic kings. Collins provides a broad panorama of the age, presenting characters great and small, including kings, magnates, popes, and peasants. This is a well-done study suitable for both scholars and general readers.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist
Choice Review
Collins sees the much-maligned tenth century as the formative period of Western civilization, due to the spread of Catholicism and the consolidation of the German empire. As the Vikings and Magyars settled down and converted to Christianity, the people of central Europe were able to live in greater security than at any time since the dissolution of Charlemagne's empire. The unedifying spectacle of the power grabs centered on the papacy detracts from this rosy image, although with the Cluniac reforms, "monastic life provided the ordered context in which the West was born." Collins's treatment of al-Andalus is somewhat negative, but he maintains that he is trying to restore some balance, after the work of scholars such as David Levering Lewis. The narrative is interesting and on the whole easy to follow, except where the author gets mired down in a tangle of Lothars, Charleses, and too many popes named John. Collins has excellent sections on landscape, battle tactics, and weapons as well as vivid biographies of key players, such as the Empress Theophano, Gerbert of Aurillac, and Liutprand of Cremona. The maps are not detailed enough to be of much use. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate libraries. E. Edson emerita, Piedmont Virginia Community College