A rich and surprising look at the robust European culture that thrived after the collapse of Rome. The barbarians who destroyed the glory that was Rome demolished civilization along with it, and for the next four centuries the peasants and artisans of Europe barely held on. Random violence, mass migration, disease, and starvation were the only ways of life. This is the picture of the Dark Ages that most historians promote. But archaeology tells a different story. Peter Wells, one of the world’s leading archaeologists, surveys the archaeological record to demonstrate that the Dark Ages were not dark at all. The kingdoms of Christendom that emerged starting in the ninth century sprang from a robust, previously little-known European culture, albeit one that left behind few written texts.

Similarly, it's hard not to love this book, which employs a diverse cast of characters ranging from C.S. Lewis and Emily Dickinson to Lily Munster and the Great Pumpkin to reveal the historical, hilarious, and even holy origins of the words we use, even though many of us have forgotten what they mean. Join Professor Esolen on this fun yet educational romp through 98 of your soon to be favorite words. *Learn how and why (to say nothing of when and where) to properly use the word"drunken." (Hint: not to relay the fact that..."The bridegroom's mother has drunken awhole bottle of champagne, and is now drawing flowers on the floor with her lipstick.") *Appreciate why you don't want Lily Munster to dust your furniture...at least not in theKing's English. *And seethe, along with Esolen and other lovers of beauty in language and liturgy, whenyou see how a mighty angel of God is reduced to the status of a mere messenger boythrough bad word choices. Again and again, you'll find yourself agreeing with Esolen, who, channeling his inner Boris Badunov (Bullwinkle the Moose's nemesis, for the philistines and milennials among you), reminds us that " Eees good to know grammar. Eees delight, to play with style. Eees, no?" Yes, it is! And it also edifying to see just how rooted our language is in the Christian faith, as rooted as once was our culture. Esolen's delightful tour of the English language and its roots gives us a window into our shared heritage that sadly we've largely forgotten. We won't tell you what the word referenced in the first sentence above is... but don't be it. Buy this book. You'll be glad you did.

The Middle Ages was a time of great upheaval - the period between the seventh and fourteenth centuries saw great social, political and economic change. The radically distinct cultures of the Christian West, Byzantium, Persian-influenced Islam, and al-Andalus resulted in different responses to the garden arts of antiquity and different attitudes to the natural world and its artful manipulation. Yet these cultures interacted and communicated, trading plants, myths and texts. By the fifteenth century the garden as a cultural phenomenon was immensely sophisticated and a vital element in the way society saw itself and its relation to nature. A Cultural History of Gardens in the Medieval Age presents an overview of the period with essays on issues of design, types of gardens, planting, use and reception, issues of meaning, verbal and visual representation of gardens, and the relationship of gardens to the larger landscape.