Sadly, I am told time travel is not a possibility and that, even if it were, it would probably be more trouble than it’s worth. Well I am not going to let that hurt my fantasies of visiting bygone years. I have books, after all. And A Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England is a very entertaining and informative look at the past. The author, Ian Mortimer, is a historian who regularly time travels thanks to the reenacting groups he’s involved in. I think the reenacting must have helped him write this book. It is a history book but it reads exactly like a tour guide with where to stay, what to eat, and places to visit.
It sounds weird but it is fantastic. I really felt like I was going back in time. And what’s more, it helped me try to understand the people of the period as people without treating them like a museum exhibit to be scrutinized. The most compelling example is the plague. Mortimer mentions that the statistic, one third of Europe dies from the plague can mislead people to thinking there is a two thirds chance of survival. There’s not. If you “survive” the plague, you most likely never caught it to begin with. In reality, whole towns were decimated, countrysides emptied. He asks the reader to imagine, in the course of a week or two, losing everyone you love, everyone of your town really. It was incredibly devastating as all the human networks people depended on for safety and companionship were torn away. I’d never thought of the plague that way, mostly because it’s easier for us to blithely state the statistics and move on to the good things the plague did (make society more democratic, among other things), glibly shoving human experience into numbers and forgetting that these people had real lives and felt real pain.
I learned a lot from this book, some confirming stereotypes (the Middle Ages are indeed very violent and sexist) but a lot changing the way I viewed them (they did indeed have cleanliness standards and appreciated good literature and beauty). All in all, it was an excellent read. Mortimer’s writing style is entertaining and he is not above making the occasional snarky comment, making this book a wonderful combination of fun and informative.
