“There's lots of good news for the middle aged…A very jolly book with clear scientific explanations.”—The Telegraph David Bainbridge is a vet with a particular interest in evolutionary zoology—and he has just turned forty. As well as the usual concerns about greying hair, failing eyesight, and goldfish levels of forgetfulness, he finds himself pondering some bigger questions: have I come to the end of my productive life as a human being? And what I am now for? By looking afresh at the latest research from the fields of anthropology, neuroscience, psychology, and reproductive biology, it seems that the answers are surprisingly, reassuringly encouraging. In clear, engaging and amiable prose, Bainbridge explains the science behind the physical, mental and emotional changes men and women experience between the ages of 40 and 60, and reveals the evolutionary—and personal—benefits of middle age, which is unique to human beings and helps to explain the extraordinary success of our species. Middle Age will change the way you think about midlife, and help turn the crisis into a cause for celebration. “Bainbridge's zoological examination of the human animal results in a study that is full of surprises...Heartening.”—Sunday Times “Thought-provoking. [It] should certainly shed some new light on one's own potbellied or menopausal mid-life crisis...Fascinating.”—Evening Standard

At the beginning of the period Rome was old and worn out with misgovernment and evil living. But planted in this dying Rome there was the new and vigorous Christian Church which was to draw up into itself all that was best and strongest of the old world. The Germans were rude and uncivilized, but they were strong in mind and body, and possessed some ideas about government, women, and the family which were better than the ideas of the Romans on these subjects.

The Middle Ages were marked by economic and territorial expansion, demographic and urban growth, the emergence of national identity, and the restructuring of secular and ecclesiastical institutions. Readers will learn about the great achievements of the ninth through twelfth centuries, a time when people were often categorized into three orders: those who fight, those who pray, and those who labor. Other notable events and phenomena examined in this authoritative history include the Carolingian renaissance, the Crusades, Gothic art and architecture, the papal monarchy, the birth of the university, and the recovery of ancient Greek thought.

Joachim of Fiore proclaimed a philosophy of history which exercised a powerful influence in succeeding centuries. This book traces the influence of his prophecies concerning a Third Age of the Spirit to come, as later expressed in the themes of New Spiritual Men, Last World Emperor, Angelic Pope, and Renovatio Mundi. It shows that these ideas were not only the mainspring of various heterodox groups, but also engaged the attention of certain church leaders, university scholars, Renaissance thinkers, Protestant theologians, and political rulers down to the seventeenth century.