 The two volumes of The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History | |
| Author |
|
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | History |
| Published | 1952 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History is a two-volume history of medieval Europe by Charles Previté-Orton (1877–1947), prepared for publication by Philip Grierson, and published by Cambridge University Press in 1952. It is a condensed and revised version of The Cambridge Medieval History which was published in eight volumes between the World Wars and, unlike that work, was intended for a general audience.
The book was generally well received despite some criticism for being too heavy on facts and neglecting the non-political aspects of medieval history such as literature and art. Others felt that it was not as easy a read as had been promised. Reviewers agreed that it was more than a mere condensing of its parent, being almost completely new material from the pen of Previté-Orton that reflected the latest developments in medieval history in the 1940s rather than the views of twenty or thirty years earlier that formed the original work. There was disquiet, however, that even such a distinguished author as Previté-Orton could not be right all the time and that the inevitable generalising statements essential in such a condensed work might be mistaken for settled facts when much about medieval history remained uncertain.