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How long does it take to read The Making of Europe?

Christopher Dawson

The Making of Europe by Christopher Dawson takes about 5 hours 49 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.

About 5 hours 49 minutes

A weekend read

First published 1932. 317 pages, about 87,175 words.

12 days at 30 minutes a day

Estimate based on 275 words per page.

At other speeds

Slow, 150 words a minute 9 hours 41 minutes
Average, 250 words a minute 5 hours 49 minutes
Fast, 400 words a minute 3 hours 38 minutes

The page count is the median across 24 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.

About the book

Christopher Dawson concludes that the period of the fourth to the eleventh centuries, commonly known as the Dark Ages, is not a barren prelude to the creative energy of the medieval world. Instead, he argues that it is better described as "ages of dawn" for it is in this rich and confused period that the complex and creative interaction of the Roman empire, the Christian Church, the classical tradition, and barbarous societies provided the foundation for a vital, unified European culture. In an age of fragmentation and the emergence of new nationalist forces, Dawson argued that if "our civilization is to survive, it is essential that it should develop a common European consciousness and sense of historic and organic unity." But he was clear that this unity required sources deeper and more complex than the political and economic movements on which so many had come to depend, and he insisted, prophetically, that Europe would need to recover its Christian roots if it was to survive. In a time of cultural and political ambiguity, The making of Europe is an indispensable work for understanding not only the rich sources but also the contemporary implications of the very idea of Europe.

Subjects: Church history, Civilization, Europe, History, Medieval Civilization, Civilization, medieval

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