Open Yale Courses

HIST 210: The Early Middle Ages, 284–1000 with Prof. Paul H. Freedman

About the Course

Major developments in the political, social, and religious history of Western Europe from the accession of Diocletian to the feudal transformation. Topics include the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the "Dark Ages," Charlemagne and the Carolingian renaissance, and the Viking and Hungarian invasions. View class sessions »

Course Structure

This Yale College course, taught on campus two times per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Fall 2011.

About Professor Paul H. Freedman

Paul H. Freedman is the Chester D. Tripp Professor of History at Yale. He received an MLS and PhD in History from University of California at Berkeley, and specializes in medieval social history, the history of Spain, comparative studies of the peasantry, trade in luxury products, and history of cuisine. Since coming to Yale, Professor Freedman has served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in History, Director of the Medieval Studies Program and Chair of the History Department. He also published his third book, Images of the Medieval Peasant (1999) and two collections of essays: Church, Law and Society in Catalonia, 900-1500 and Assaigs d'historia de la pagesia catalana (writings on the history of the Catalan peasantry). More recently Freedman edited Food: The History of Taste, an illustrated collection of essays about food from prehistoric to contemporary times. His book on the demand for spices in medieval Europe was published in 2008 by Yale University Press; it is entitled Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination.

How to use these pages:

This folder contains course content in HTML format for offline viewing. From this "start" page you can access all of the class sessions by clicking on the link above. The Syllabus page and course resources can be accessed directly from the "content" folder. If your computer is connected to the Internet, the audio and video files will be accessible via their respective links.

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