
Powers and Thrones
A New History of the Middle Ages
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Narrated by:
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Dan Jones
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By:
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Dan Jones
About this listen
"Not only an engrossing read about the distant past, both informative and entertaining, but also a profoundly thought-provoking view of our not-really-so-‘new’ present . . . All medieval history is here, beautifully narrated . . . The vision takes in whole imperial landscapes but also makes room for intimate portraits of key individuals, and even some poems."—Wall Street Journal
"A lively history . . . [Jones] has managed to touch every major topic. As each piece of the puzzle is placed into position, the modern world gradually comes into view . . . Powers and Thrones provides the reader with a framework for understanding a complicated subject, and it tells the story of an essential era of world history with skill and style."—The New York Times
The New York Times bestselling author returns with an epic history of the medieval world—a rich and complicated reappraisal of an era whose legacy and lessons we are still living with today.
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled 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 listeners 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 European voyages to the Americas.
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 the 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.
The West was rebuilt on the ruins of an empire and emerged from a state of crisis and collapse to dominate the world. Every sphere of human life and activity was transformed in the thousand years covered by Powers and Thrones. As we face a critical turning point in our own millennium, Dan Jones shows that how we got here matters more than ever.
©2021 Dan Jones (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Despite the immensity of the task, renowned historian Jones makes the 1,000-year history of the Middle Ages accessible and utterly fascinating. He does so by consistently applying two techniques, strategic use of primary source material and relatable comparisons to modern times.... The book’s subtitle includes the word new, and deservedly so. This is a refreshing take on a long, complex period in the human story.” (Booklist)
“This gripping history manages to bring novelty to a well-trod subject, spanning the Dark Ages and the globe. Traversing crises and empires and shedding new light on famous subjects, this archive of a fascinating time enthralls till the final page.” (Newsweek)
“Jones covers 1,000 years of world history in this entertaining chronicle of the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Protestant Reformation. Throughout, Jones displays flashes of humor and reveals unexpected links between events and figures.... This richly detailed history will appeal to aficionados and newcomers alike.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
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- By Mike From Mesa on 11-10-22
By: Max Hastings
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The Devil's Element
- Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance
- By: Dan Egan
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people.
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Exceptionally well crafted
- By DJJ on 03-30-23
By: Dan Egan
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The Club
- Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age
- By: Leo Damrosch
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In 1763, the painter Joshua Reynolds proposed to his friend Samuel Johnson that they invite a few friends to join them every Friday at the Turk's Head Tavern in London to dine, drink, and talk until midnight. Eventually, the group came to include among its members Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, Edward Gibbon, and James Boswell. It was known simply as "the Club". In this captivating audiobook, Leo Damrosch brings alive a brilliant, competitive, and eccentric cast of characters.
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Wonderful survey
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Leo Damrosch
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A Pillar of Iron
- A Novel of Ancient Rome
- By: Taylor Caldwell
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 33 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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From his birth in 106 BC in the hill town of Arpinum, Cicero, the educated son of a wealthy member of the equestrian order, is destined for greatness. From his tumultuous family life to his tenuous alliance with Julius Caesar to a fateful love affair with the Roman empress Livia and, finally, to the political role that will make him a target of powerful enemies, A Pillar of Iron is the story of Cicero's legacy as one the greatest influences on Western civilization.
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wrong genre
- By Amazon Customer on 06-27-21
By: Taylor Caldwell
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The Plantagenets
- The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem. In this epic history, Dan Jones vividly resurrects this fierce and seductive royal dynasty and its mythic world. We meet the captivating Eleanor of Aquitaine, twice queen and the most famous woman in Christendom; her son, Richard the Lionheart, who fought Saladin in the Third Crusade; and King John, a tyrant who was forced to sign Magna Carta, which formed the basis of our own Bill of Rights.
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Old book--new narrator
- By Kay Long/The Lady Kay on 02-02-24
By: Dan Jones
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Returning Light
- Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael
- By: Robert L. Harris
- Narrated by: Robert L. Harris
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1987, Robert Harris happened upon an unusual job posting in the local paper—a new warden service was being set up on the island of Skellig Michael, and the deadline was imminent. Just weeks later he was on his way to set up camp in one of Ireland’s most remote locations, unaware that he would be making that same journey every May for the next 30 years.
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Beautiful!
- By Elizabeth B. on 11-19-23
By: Robert L. Harris
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Henry V
- The Astonishing Triumph of England's Greatest Warrior King
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 14 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry V reigned over England for only nine years and four months and died at the age of just thirty-five, but he looms over the landscape of the late Middle Ages and beyond. The victor of Agincourt, he is remembered as the acme of kingship, a model to be closely imitated by his successors. William Shakespeare deployed Henry V as a study in youthful folly redirected to sober statesmanship. For one modern medievalist, Henry was, quite simply, “the greatest man who ever ruled England.”
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Amazing Book & Fantastic Storyteller
- By L. Reilly on 11-26-24
By: Dan Jones
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Ancient Civilizations of North America
- By: Edwin Barnhart, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Edwin Barnhart
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Original Recording
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For the past few hundred years, most of what we’ve been taught about the native cultures of North America came from reports authored by the conquerors and colonizers who destroyed them. Now - with the technological advances of modern archaeology and a new perspective on world history - we are finally able to piece together their compelling true stories. In Ancient Civilizations of North America, Professor Edwin Barnhart, Director of the Maya Exploration Center, will open your eyes to a fascinating world you never knew existed - even though you’ve been living right next to it, or even on top of it.
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A different perspective - civilizations not tribes
- By Steve Goppert on 07-26-18
By: Edwin Barnhart, and others
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Oceans of Kansas
- A Natural History of the Western Interior Sea
- By: Michael J. Everhart
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Revised, updated, and expanded with the latest interpretations and fossil discoveries, the second edition of Oceans of Kansas adds new twists to the fascinating story of the vast inland sea that engulfed central North America during the Age of Dinosaurs. Giant sharks, marine reptiles called mosasaurs, pteranodons, and birds with teeth all flourished in and around these shallow waters. Their abundant and well-preserved remains were sources of great excitement in the scientific community when first discovered in the 1860s and continue to yield exciting discoveries 150 years later.
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CAUTION: will cause drowsiness.
- By Occasional Barista on 01-16-25
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Horizon
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 22 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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From pole to pole and across decades of lived experience, National Book Award-winning author Barry Lopez delivers his most far-ranging, yet personal, work to date. Horizon moves indelibly, immersively, through the author’s travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galápagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica.
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Brilliant Wise and Thought Provoking
- By findley on 05-04-19
By: Barry Lopez
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Ancient Mesopotamia
- Life in the Cradle of Civilization
- By: The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Professor Amanda H. Podany PhD
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Mesopotamia is the ancient name for the region that is now Iraq, a remarkably advanced civilization that flourished for two-thirds of the time that civilization has existed on Earth. Mesopotamians mastered irrigation agriculture; built the first complex urban societies; developed writing, literature, and law; and united vast regions through warfare and diplomacy. While civilizations like Greece and Rome have an unbroken tradition of written histories, the rich history of Mesopotamia has only been recently rediscovered, thanks to the decipherment of Mesopotamia's cuneiform writing less than 200 years ago.
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Time with a great scholar & fantastic lecturer
- By jgmegill on 07-14-18
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Entangled Life
- How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
- By: Merlin Sheldrake
- Narrated by: Merlin Sheldrake
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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When we think of fungi, we likely think of mushrooms. But mushrooms are only fruiting bodies, analogous to apples on a tree. Most fungi live out of sight, yet make up a massively diverse kingdom of organisms that supports and sustains nearly all living systems. Fungi provide a key to understanding the planet on which we live, and the ways we think, feel, and behave.
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Mycology for Everyone
- By Cephalopods Revenge on 05-12-20
By: Merlin Sheldrake
What listeners say about Powers and Thrones
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- Amanda Kemp
- 01-13-22
Great history!
As usual he knocks it out of the park. Taking such a massive amount of history and really hitting all the good points and not just the usual stuff. It is a great listen/read and he makes it relatable. Also, how often can you find such a good writer who is also a good narrator? Thank you to Dan Jones for such a good book!
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3 people found this helpful
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- D N Wolfe
- 04-26-23
Excellent Overview of the Middle Ages
I reject the views of some reviewers who seem to have not read the summary of the book before they read or listened to the book itself. If you want a solid overview of a period of human history that was too long and too varied in location and themes to support a deeper treatment, this book is for you.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Angie Ronquillo
- 01-24-23
Great book
Dan Jones never disappoints. He’s so thorough & gives a lively presentation. His books are well researched & interesting to read.
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2 people found this helpful
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- bumdhar
- 12-20-22
Great History
Great historical overview. I learned a lot, especially about the rise of Islam. It’s a fascinating time.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ichiban
- 03-12-22
A tale for the ages
I enjoyed all the topics covered and the detail provided. Thank you for the listen.
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- Catherine I. Osullivan
- 04-04-23
Stars say it all
History telling is hard to get people interested. This guy did a great job. And what a bang for your buck! Miles and miles and miles with this one book!
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- Alberto
- 11-07-23
Brilliantly entertaining
Dan Jones not only is a solid historian but as importantly he is a wonderful narrator of stories. Stories which he masterfully builds based on historical facts and thus traps me non-endlessly.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-01-24
What a Wonderful Read
Dan Jones is a master writer and storyteller, weaving such an incredible account of the Middle Ages into an inspiring read detailing the various facets of these important years in human history. I highly recommend this book, and the narration by the author is superb. From one grateful listener and reader, Thank You, from the bottom of my heart, Dan Jones!
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- Grupo
- 12-11-24
Great reader. Well paced and really entertaining
A really entertaining listen. Even though it was more than 10 hours I still wanted more
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-01-25
Broad, wholistic introduction to the major trends of the Middle Ages
Appreciated the broader coverage of areas neglected by traditional western education like the Huns, Eastern Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, and the Golden Horde. It did stray into the Renaissance a bit more than the scope would suggest, and that time might have been better spent expanding on developments like the Hanseatic League or Hundred Years War.
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