I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

It was years after my college course on Western Civilization that I regained even the faintest curiosity about history--not only history, really, but specifically the history of Western Europe. The college course focused on wars and royalty, with no attention spent on anyone less than a duke, and no attention given to movements or causes unless they had an immediate impact on monarchies. Essay questions grilled us on whether we could define the difference between Henry II, Henry IV and Henry the Navigator. (And royal families lack of imagination in naming their children continues to be a burden; don't get me started on the Saxons.)

Dan Jones is the professor I never had. Reading The Plantagenets a few years ago was a revelation. Admittedly, Jones had the advantage of introducing some of the most dynamic and fascinating actors of the Middle Ages but there were still plenty of knotted questions to unwind.

Powers and Thrones is a different book entirely. It covers the slow fall of Rome, and all the way through Western European history to the Protestant Revolution. Unlike my college course, Jones is aware of the greater population, not only in the West but all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He identifies the forces that changed history, from invasions to plagues, climate disasters and religious zeal.

Perhaps his greatest achievement is to write so plainly and clearly that he engages the reader in the people and events he describes.

This is, honestly, a ridiculous amount of information for one book. But Jones has structured it so that there is a natural flow as the subjects change, with references and footnotes and maps galore.

‘This book covers more than a thousand years, and its geographical scope encompasses every continent save Australasia and Antarctica.’

The book has sixteen chapters divided across four parts: Imperium (c 410 AD – 750 AD); Dominion (c 750 AD – 1215 AD); Rebirth (c 1215 AD – 1347 AD) and Revolution (c 1348 AD – 1527 AD). This history takes us on a journey between the sacks of Rome in 410 AD and 1527 AD. Within this structure, Mr Jones identifies three key themes that have underpinned the success of the west: conquest, commerce, and Christianity.

It is an epic history, covering the period between the retreat of the Roman Empire in the west and the 16th century Reformation. What makes this book particularly interesting is that it ventures beyond the political timeline. In addition to the power struggles between emperors, kings and tribal leaders, Mr Jones also writes of the impacts of pandemics, of demographic changes, and of climate change. Exploration, religious conquest, commercial growth, decline, and rejuvenation are all part of the history. I am reminded of the power of the Byzantine Empire, diminished after the 7th century but still standing until the fall of Constantinople in 1453, of the impact of the Mongol invasion in the 13th century, of the rise of commerce. There’s a lot to consider. I could get lost in reading about William Marshal, Sir Richard (Dick) Whittington, El, Cid and Leonardo da Vinci, or the impact of printing on the power of the Catholic Church.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking to expand their knowledge (and appreciation) of the period we in the west refer to as the Middle Ages.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus/Apollo for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

What a book! It has taken me nearly a month to read with so much detail, yet there is also humour, thankfully.
Political power, religious battles and schisms, disease( COVID-19 is not the first pandemic) , trade wars, weapons and punishments, all combine to take the reader on a fascinating journey through The Middle Ages.
I really enjoyed the Islamic section, the story of its creation and evolution is pertinent today. The story of the Camels and the water will stay with me forever, I can’t get rid of that image!!
I will have to reread some of the chapters, there are so many similar names and numerous battles, but you cannot fault the research! History is written by the winners and each era demands and deserves careful consideration. Yes, it is a weighty tome, but we have a lot of history to cover. It helps to open the eyes and minds to past events that have consequences still being played out today.
A five star read. Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus publishers for my ARC, in return for my honest, unbiased and freely given opinions .
I will leave reviews to Goodreads and other outlets later.

Powers & Thrones takes a comprehensive, captivating and entertaining look at the enduring legacy of the Middle Ages in the form of supremely talented historian, broadcaster and award-winning journalist Dan Jones’ narrative nonfiction. This is an epic reappraisal of the medieval world--and the rich and complicated legacy left to us by the rise of the West. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signalled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names--from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine--Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes readers on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West, and culminates in the first contact between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century.

The medieval world was forged by the big forces that still occupy us today: climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, and technological revolutions. This was the time when the great European nationalities were formed; when our basic Western systems of law and governance were codified; when the Christian Churches matured as both powerful institutions and the regulators of Western public morality; and when art, architecture, philosophical inquiry and scientific invention went through periods of massive, revolutionary change. 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.

The West was rebuilt on the ruins of an empire and emerged from a state of crisis and collapse to dominate the region and the world. Every sphere of human life and activity was transformed in the thousand years of Powers and Thrones. As we face a critical turning point in our own millennium, the legacy and lessons of how we got here matter more than ever. A richly informative, magnificent and eminently readable history of the Middle Ages in which Jones takes present-day preoccupations and analyses them, playing them out in a different time. Just as A Distant Mirror was about the calamities of the twentieth century reflected in the fourteenth century, this focuses on twenty-first-century preoccupations, things like climate change, big migrations of people, big technological changes, the emergence of nations and the relationship between individual states and big dominant superstructures. It is looking at all of the things we think about now, concerning the Middle Ages. Highly recommended.

I haven't read any of the authors other books but I'm a total history junkie (Discovery & History Channels are my faves). I loved the series he did on British Castles so this was a no-brainer for me.

I do have a degree in History and Classical Studies but you could be just a bored lay-person or military veteran and you could get a great deal of knowledge and enjoyment from this book. It does encompass a vast time period (from 400AD-Renaissance). It has a distinct focus on Western Europe and the peoples that they were directly in contact with/influenced by. It's not your day in the life of kind of read -it concentrates more on the forces that can be outside factors on the power bases- such as the movement of people, diseases and ideas, and the big game-changer - religion.

The sections are broke down into easy to manage chunks and you could easily just go to whatever chapters interested you most. I'm more of a Classical History buff so I loved the earlier chapters dealing with the decline of the Roman Empire in the West.

There are great maps that help you to track shifting borders/powers and a HUGE selection of further reading in various topics contained within the book for anything which might have piqued your interest.

Bestselling author Dan Jones tells the story of how the world we know today formed.

It is a thousand-year emprise of Middle Ages that moves from the ancient Rome, invasions of barbarians in AD 410, from ruin of mighty Rome - to the first contacts between the old and new worlds in the sixteenth century. From a state of crisis and collapse, the West was rebuilt and came to dominate the entire globe. Success of the West was established on three pillars:
- commerce,
- conquest
and Christianity.

Dan Jones is a skillful storyteller, the book is written with such a clarity, wit and ease. It is even fast paced, full of fascinating facts and stories of people, metropolises, such as Constantinople, Venice, Rome, Paris that ruled the world, ideas, progress and growth - everything based on sources, of course.

Author provides thorough and well researched historical facts and subsequent analysis of Middle Ages and involves the reader to question and ponders more about those tendencies that put the West world on the throne of the whole world.

Epic and eye-opening read!
Highly recommended.

This book is a comprehensive, enjoyable and easy to read overview of the Middle Ages for the period AD 410-AD 1527. It has a strong and deliberate concentration on Western Europe with other parts of the world included only to the extent that they interacted with (and particularly if they impacted on) the West. It is also a big picture book – concentrating as the title suggests on powers and kingdoms,– this is not the book to read to get an idea of what day to day life was like for typical members of society at different points in the Middle Ages but to understand the macro forces which acted to bring about changes in society - the forces extending beyond political power to climate, disease, technology, religion and trade.

The book is in four main sections – each of four chapters of typically 40-50 pages each.

The first section is AD410-AD750:Imperium. The fours chapters are – Romans, Barbarians, Byzantines, Arabs. The first chapter is an overview of Imperial Rome – it successes and its strength almost immediately before its precipitous collapse (illustrated by the Hoxne Hoard and its connection with the collapse of Roman authority in England). This and the next chapter then looks at how climate change and associated mass migration (much of it a domino effect from other migrations – the author I think draws heavily here on Peter Heather’s brilliant “The Fall of Rome) undermined the entire basis on which the Empire was maintained. The resulting “Barbarian” realms in the West, the rise of the new Rome in Byzantium (and its interactions with the West) and the rise of Islam and its impact are then considered in turn.

The second section: is AD750 to AD1215: Dominion. The fours chapters are – Franks, Monks, Knights and Crusaders. This section is very much a study in human power – both hard power (the emerging Frankish kingdom and their revival of a pseudo-Roman Empire) but also the softer power of religious orders, the way in which the reliance on heavily armoured horse born soldiers (and the expense of supporting them) lead to the importance of Kinghthood and the invention of chivalry, and then the way in which both (together with the interaction with Byzantium and its own problem with its non-Christian neighbours) all interacted to lead to the Crusades.

The third section is AD1215 to AD1347: Rebirth. The fours chapters are - Mongols, Merchants, Scholars and Builders. The Mongols chapter features that the book calls a dramatic shift in geopolitics (caused by an Eastern Empire with a capital in what is now Bejing – with some fairly clear modern day resonances). But the rest of the chapter features some of those whose influences remain to this day – global traders and the financial devices (including banking) they developed around it, the founders of the World’s great Universities and the builders of some of its greatest buildings such as cathedrals and castles.

The fourth section is AD 1348 to AD1527: Revolution: The fours chapters are - Survivors, Renewers, Navigators, Protestants. This book is about the end of the middle ages – starting with the devastation of a global pandemic which unlike our present one caused mass mortality and transformed previously feudal economies not by lockdown but by a tragic demand/supply imbalance. The book looks at the Renaissance and the search for new worlds, before finishing with the Protestant Reformation which not just restored Christianity but finished the Middle Ages.

This author is my favourite historical writer. His accounts read like novels.

Sadly, I cannot read much of this book, because the supplied format is so difficult to read. Either the text is too small or else it is not all on-screen.

What I did read was up to his normal level, but comprises only 10% of the book.

You need a format with both text magnification and re-flow. The books used to be offered in epub and azw formats. Why you have changed to pdf I have no idea, but it cannot be for security reasons, as none are secure against removal of drm.

In Powers and Thrones, Dan Jones sets out to provide an overview of the entire period known as the Middle Ages, from the fall of Rome in c.400AD through to Da Vinci, Columbus, et al in the early 1500s. Over the course of 600 pages, the author provides an informative but whistle stop tour of the Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Franks, Crusaders, Mongols and more.

There were times, when reading this, when I wished that Dan Jones was a little less ambitious in his scope and ambition – some sections started to feel a little like a litany of names, dates and places so I would have enjoyed a little more detail here. If you like your history to be painted in broad strokes though, you’ll love this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus, Apollo Publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“I promise you, it is going to be fun” (p.2)

It is fun - Jones has bags of charm and a strong sense of how to pitch his explanations to engage and entertain - (you probably already know this). Here, he is very much on form.

It is very readable and the global perspective is very welcome (though he admits he only shows Asia and Africa as they impinge on the West). The book comes in 4 parts and covers the following basic periods: 1) 410-750 - 2) 750-900 - 3) 900-1300 - 4) 1400-1600. That’s a lot of ground to cover - the great thing is that it is never heavy going and no section seems covered for the sake of it, or only to provide a bridge to some other more interesting period. I guess his media experience is coming into play: make the subject interesting (relevant and informative) and don’t be boring.

A generation ago books of this sort would have aimed to pack in a mass of detail (battles, royal genealogies, &c) with the aim of forming an unbroken chain of facts. Jones is more modern in trying to grasp the more general processes (structural transformations) that meant certain regions rose while others declined. There is lots of detail in here, and the passages of narrative are very clear and engaging. His skill lies in making those narrative passages seem clear and vivid, even as he then shows how their value lies in colouring in the bigger picture stuff. As I said, not only does he do this, he manages it with a deft touch.

In all this the book actually reflects what is now taught in schools he includes topics like: climate change; economy; law; population/migration; health and disease, and technological change. Obviously, this is in addition to the institutional structures the Church and State used to weather all the various pressures they faced. He is judicious and puts established views to the test of modern experience (as when he explains why the Roman sources denigrated the Vandals and how we might be able to take a different view).

I would recommend you overlook the length/size/weight - it is a super-readable and accessible overview from a well-informed and sensible modern perspective. 5-stars all the way!

Dan Jones is one of my favourite historians, who knows how to write for the masses without losing his professionalism or dumbing his stuff down. This book was no different. I was especially pleased with how he stood up for his decision to write a Eurocentric history. It was nice to see him acknowledge that this was the scope of his book, something he was very cognizant about. Too often, we see historians write Eurocentric without even knowing it or meaning to do so. So it was nice that Jones not only acknowledged it but also explained why he chose to write it like this.

It should come as no surprise that Jones has decided to take on 1000 years of history and condense it into one tome.

To be perfectly blunt, I can take or leave Jones as an author - its nothing personal. I've read his books and find them entertaining enough, but to be honest he is not one of my "go to" authors - I don't go all "fan girl" when I see his books.

Having said that, this is quite a good, well-rounded read, that will appeal to the masses. It is broken down into four parts, and four sub topics, that flow in a linear timeline. The focus encompasses both Roman Empires (East & West), Europe and the UK. Its only when discussing the Arabs and Mongols does Jones veer from a predominantly Euro-centric narrative.

The aim here is to entertain and inform, and Jones does this remarkably well; and there is - of course - plenty of notes and references for the avid history buff to go exploring further on their own.

I would recommend this to anyone looking for a slightly different take on the history narrative - and for all fans of Jones!

Wow this is a whole lot of history its fun and informative and very well researched ( from my prospective as having a keen interest in history but with a lot to learn).

Lots of history can be told very differently depending on your stand point including your faith, nationality and interests. So I say this as you may not always like certain takes on history but from as neutral a point of view as possible I feel this is extremely well written. As factual as possible and a lot more fun than a study book but this would be a great source of information to get a take of each era that is covered. The collapse of The Roman Empire to the beginning of the Reformation where another Roman Era faced a uncertain future. I feel that the 2 groups here Catholic and Protestant have far more in common than not but then that's my take on it in a sentence.

Each stage of history has winners and losers each side has a background and I felt this was covered as well as possible, specially over a 1000 years in under 1000 pages that's quite a feat to achieve. I enjoyed this as I've said and it brought history to life which is what you want if you're interested in any subject and if your interest is history then this is a wonderful book to have. I felt for me it's a book that you can just read about one era and come back later to look at another time later on. Its a lot to take in reading from front to back which I did and your right there's far too much information to grasp hold of the whole book. So I will look back at one time at a time next time I read it (that's a lot of times)

I hope you have a lot of fun and learn much from Powers and Thrones I certainly did.

To the surprise of no one, I am giving a Dan Jones book 5 stars. He’s always the first stop when I want to research an area of medieval history for my own books. This was an excellent overview of the intricate web of politics, dynasty and kingship during the middle ages. Thoroughly enjoyed. Recommend this and all Jones’ other books too.

A big thank-you to Dan Jones, Head of Zeus, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I always try to read everything that Mr Jones offers, and was delighted to have received a copy of his latest book. Being interested in the Middle Ages in general, I wanted to learn more about the early periods, beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire, and ending with the appearance of the Renaissance.
The book is terrific! For one thing, the Author manages to comprise millions of bits of information and at the same time write in an egaging way, not at all scholarly, and I appreciated this most. I am not a historian and have a general understanding of the millenium on which the Author focuses. having said that, I enjoyed enormously the panorama of the events which were at the core of that period.
Again, the tome is rather thick, however, reading it was a pleasure and for this I thank Mr Jones.
Highly recommend!

A sweeping tapestry of the
Middle Ages, a rollicking journey through Medieval civilization, its restlessness, its ambiguities and all the truculent changes that transformed Europe's identity and its destiny over several centuries.

Dan Jones takes us once again on a memorable trip through the magnificent and tumultuous ups and downs that transformed the European landscape from the fall of the Roman empire to the first lights of the Renaissance with a bold new analysis.
An unforgettable reading experience from one of the best historians at work today in English.

Highly recommended and to be enjoyed without any moderation. Bravo!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for this terrific ARC