I love promoting history books to my younger cousins. Thereby, When looking for general history books, I look for something that covered a greater number topics whilst being easy to read. More to the point, I wanted something that would be easy reading for someone who was not well-versed in the subject at hand. And I must say that The Story of the Middle Ages by Samuel B. Harding fits the bill.

The author covers the tentative beginnings of what we know as the Middle Ages all the way to its end. Thus, he has divided the various chapters into various time periods, paying particular attention to the prominent themes in each period. He starts out with the older German tribes and how they moved around in Europe. After tracing the various tussles that occurred between the different tribes and how they affected the outlying regions, he dives into topics about the bigger organized movements that came forth from this time. This includes growth of the church, the crusades, life of lords and common folk in the times as well as the development and influence of the papacy.

Admittedly, this book targets younger readers. The writing style is simple and works perfectly as a starting point for such readers. It's hardly surprising that this book is used by some as a textbook for teaching history. Nonetheless, older folks who are history buffs, and would love to learn more the time period, will thoroughly enjoy the book as well.

The book is a treasure trove of interesting facts. Different bits will cater to different folks so I won't mention them all. My example would be the origins of the whole knighting process. Apparently, when it started out the Lord would jab the guy in the neck/shoulder with his hand. Later on, they adopted the fancier method of tapping someone on the shoulder with a sword. How weird is that? I also love the bit about the Goth alphabet, the general story of how Ulfilas invented a script and then taught people to read. Admittedly, this was for religious reasons but at least it meant folks were more literate. A somewhat more distressing section was the tales of torture where ordinary folks suffered as both sides fought for control during the Crusades.

I found the book enjoyable not just because of the fun historical facts but also due to the word origin tidbits scattered throughout the book. For instance, there was the origin of the word vandals. This dated back to the time of the fights and rivalry between the German tribes. Apparently, vandals referred to a group that loved breaking up whatever was in their path. In fact, it may have been that this concept was associated with one or more tribes for quite a while. Thus, vandals were folks Wearing leather armor, donning helmets and running at folks with a battle cry rising in the background. Nowadays, we usually imagine a vandal as a hood-wearing youth who loves tagging walls, usually with graffiti. For the most part, anyway.