A Free Yale Course on Medieval History: 700 Years in 22 Lectures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=playlist
In 22 lectures, Yale historian Paul Freedman takes you on a 700-year tour of medieval history. Moving from 284‑1000 AD, this free online course covers “the conversion of Europe to Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam and the Arabs, the ‘Dark Ages,’ Charlemagne and the Carolingian renaissance, and the Viking and Hungarian invasions.” And let’s not forget St. Augustine and the “Splendor of Byzantium.”
You can stream all of the lectures above. Or find them on YouTube and this Yale website.
The Early Middle Ages: 284‑1000 will be added to our list of Free History Courses, a subset of our meta collection, 1,700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities. Below, we’ve added a list of the key texts used in the course:
- Charlemagne’s Courtier: The Complete Einhard. ed. Paul Edward Dutton, Broadview Press, 1998.
- Gregory of Tours: The Merovingians. ed. Alexander Callander Murray, Broadview Press, 2006.
- Procopius, The Secret History. ed. Richard Atwater, University of Michigan Press, 1961.
- Wickham, Chris, The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000. Viking, 2009.
- Richards, Julian, The Vikings: A Very Short History. Oxford University Press, 2005.
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