Dorsey Armstrong

For an accurate picture of how the political, social, and religious structure of present-day Europe came to be - and even why we're speaking English today - studying the key events between the years 500 and 1500 is of critical import. These 24 gripping lectures deliver an unparalleled look at these moments that profoundly changed the arc of history, and they weave the era's vast array of disparate events into an interconnected tapestry that illuminates...

The Middle Ages was a time of major advances in many fields of knowledge, from theology and philosophy to science, medicine, art, literature, and education. Owing to the work of an astonishing range of visionary thinkers, this fascinating period was the era in which the foundations of the modern Western world were laid. In the medieval era's great minds we find the roots of many aspects of today's world - from the religious/philosophical thought of...

Much of this series has been about looking back to a watershed year in history. In this final episode, Professor Armstrong looks forward to consider how the events from this series shaped the centuries that followed. With a shifting climate, the decline of population, and the catastrophic Black Death in the 14th century, we can look back and see that the year 1215 is truly an anomalous time.

As we deal with our own 21st-century pandemic, the curious among us have looked back to the 14th-century pandemic known as the Black Death. You'll be surprised to discover how many of our assumptions and conclusions about that time have been upended as new methods of scientific inquiry have been applied to old questions.

Observa cómo las mentes eruditas respondieron a la peste a través de la redacción y difusión de tratados sobre la misma. Revisa las teorías sobre la aparición de la peste, desde las conjunciones astrológicas y el clima, hasta las del aire "contaminado", los eclipses y los terremotos. Examina los procedimientos de saneamiento contemporáneos, los remedios médicos y las prácticas de los médicos de la peste.

A few episodes ago, you studied the "persecution canons" of the Fourth Lateran Council and saw the tense relationship between the Church and non-Christians. Here, Professor Armstrong unpacks the background to the Crusades, beginning with Pope Urban II's 1095 call for Christians to take the Holy Land back from the Muslims.

In the century after Pope Urban II, a "crusading impulse" had taken over medieval western Europe. In this episode, examine the Fourth Crusade, which began in 1198 and culminated with the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Then turn to the Children's Crusade that followed.

Los acontecimientos de la peste negra inspiraron algunas de las mayores obras maestras de la historia. En esta conferencia, descubre la variedad de respuestas literarias a la peste, poniendo especial atención al poema onírico Pedro el labrador de William Langland y al Decamerón de Boccaccio. Aprende cómo la peste puso a Geoffrey Chaucer en el camino de la inmortalidad literaria.

La peste negra asestó duros golpes a la institución de la Iglesia. Comprende cómo la mortandad de la peste entre el clero alteró la jerarquía y la gestión de los asuntos religiosos. Investiga también cómo el hecho de que la Iglesia no pudiera proporcionar una cura para la peste o un alivio ante ella debilitó notablemente su autoridad y su estatus.

Shift your attention from Europe to the Americas, where a number of civilizations were thriving in 1215. Although no single episode could do justice to all of these civilizations, Professor Armstrong spotlights the Pueblo people, the Incas, and the Maya, providing a solid foundation for what was happening on the American continents at the time.