Tom Holland tackles the history of Europe which is split into factional kingdoms two centuries either side of the year 1000, the first millennium after Christ. His thesis is that the anarchy of the supposed Dark Ages gives way to a new social order, shaped by Christianity, to form the Medieval World. The backdrop is the fear of many Christians of the coming of anti-Christ at the turn of the millennium, which never came to fruition. This is the time of King Canute facing Viking raiders, the Norman conquest of England, the struggles of Gregory VII with Henry IV, and the failed crusade.
Tom Holland was born in 1968 and has risen to eminence as a best-selling historian of classical and medieval history, writing with a very readable, accessible and swashbuckling style. Millennium is a less success blend of popular history and readability, darting from one country to another without proper focus and hampered with too much detail. It rather feels that the author wants to prove that the separation of church and state is what makes for change, but does not make a wholly convincing argument. Surely the real story is that Christianity becomes the universal religion and has a startling effect on civilisation. Holland’s magic dust fails to excite this time.