This is a one thousand-year history of the civilization of western Europe. Part one is a narrative account of the entire period, from the barbarian settlement of Roman Europe from the 5th to the 7th centuries to the war-torn crises of Christian Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Part two analyzes the origins of early medieval ideas of culture and religion, the constraints of time and space in a pre-industrial world and the Christianization of society. It concludes with a reconstruction of the lives and sensibilities of the people during this period.