This course surveys aspects of the history of Europe from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire to the problems in the fourteenth century of famine, plague and war, from which a new Europe arose. Themes include the persistence of Roman traditions, conversion to Christianity, the rise of national monarchies, the expansion of medieval frontiers, the rise of the university, the evolution of the Church, and changes in medieval art and architecture, in order to examine the rich complexity of life in the Middle Ages.