The Middle Ages: A Graphic History (Introducing)

This book offers a brief overview of the thousand years of history known as the Middle Ages. Although it’s short and hits only major highlights, it’s actually a rather long read. While you can appreciate the succinct summary of this incredibly important historical period, the drama of the stories that make up the history is lost, leaving you feeling very much like you are reading your standard middle-grade textbook, full of names and dates but lacking context and humanity.

The graphic novel format helps to alleviate this tedium somewhat, but the drawings seem targeted toward an older audience than the text; they frequently include quite graphic depictions, both violent and sexual, which may give pause to parents who were hoping this could be given to their tweens with nonchalance.

The book seems to struggle to find its audience. Perhaps it is written for a casual adult reader, who might enjoy the snarky comics, but although the author initially stated the intention to defend this period, the overall tone seems condescending and dismissive, rather than truly open and with an intention to understand and appreciate. Overall, it is an adequate introduction to medieval history lightened by graphic illustrations.