Jane's Reviews > Inventing the Middle Ages

I realize that this book is not very highly regarded by professional medievalists, but I found it extremely interesting, even though at times the style was rather OMG and I had serious ideological differences with the author, who is quite conservative. But his writing is incredibly engaging, and a picture emerges of the tremendous revolution in medieval studies between 1890 and 1965 that I found extremely compelling and helpful.

A few notes on the Goodreads headnote: obviously the romantic idea of the Middle Ages as being full of knights and tournaments predates Maitland's study of English common law. This is about the emergence of a more substantive academic understanding of medieval culture. Also, a very important thread in this book that will interest many readers is the tremendous impact of Jewish scholars during the era of fascism and WWII. Really fascinating.