Why Do We Keep Returning To The Middle Ages?

History’s most iconic era

Ask a modern historian what and when the Middle Ages or Medieval period is and you’ll get a variety of answers. Traditionally it has been defined as the period after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century and before the Renaissance in the 15th century — an almost 1000-year-long period. Sometimes it starts later, following the Dark Ages. Sometimes it finishes later, skipping the Renassiance and going straight to the Early Modern. As with all these ‘historical periods’ even looking slightly below…