Charlemagne: A Captivating Guide to the Greatest Monarch of the Carolingian Empire and How He Ruled over the Franks, Lombards, and Romans (Biographies)

This review and summation of Charlemagne and his impact on history is both revealing and informative in its breath and depth of information vis a vis his life with its innumerable challenges. His ability to govern with the insight that education in the skills of reading and writing was needed to educate people in the ways of Christianity was insightful and prudent.

This book is clear, easy reading - this book quickly recounts the history of Charlemagne life. Not tediously but interestingly.

Great book

As I said, this is a well documented book, easy to read. English is no my first language, but I can tell you, I read this book in one night.

a decent book but probably high school rating.

Level-headed and balanced view of Charlemagne. It is good to have someone be fair to the old War Master.

Overall, this is a decent book and gives some good details about the life of Charlemagne. At times, though, it reads like a high school book report. There are many analogies that are just ridiculous, and some bloating of parts to build suspense that come off pretty cheesy. A few of my favorites: "There were only two ways for her to reach Italy in safety: either by sea or by land." It's the 8th century... How else is she going to travel? By dragon? "As the 8th century drew to a close, Charlemagne had become one of the most powerful people in Europe." He ruled over the largest empire since the fall of the Western Roman Empire and was unstoppable. He was THE most powerful man in Europe. No need to use weasel words here. "Still, it’s impossible to justify what Charlemagne did next, much less understand it. The king reacted in a movement of unspeakable violence that can hardly be comprehended...The scope of Charlemagne’s awful massacre is so vast and the logistics so complicated (how do you kill 4,500 people, one by one, in a single day?)... " If you've ever studied any history at all, killing 4,500 people is child's play and very easy to understand. Also, judging the actions of rulers from 1300 years ago based on modern morals is silly and not anything any serious student of history would do. Once again, it is an overall decent book. It just made me laugh out loud a few times at some of its ridiculousness. Luckily it's short so you can knock it out in an afternoon and move on to something more serious.

I was always under the impression that Charlemagne stopped the Islamic expansion into Europe. At least this book set me straight that it was his grandfather Charles Martel who did that.

I've read several biographies on Charlemagne, and this is by far the most readable and involving - bravo!

This is history but told in a way that sounds like someone telling you a story. It took me a chapter or two to get used to the style, but after that I read through this book like a knife cutting through butter! Super informative but also funny, anecdotal and tongue-in-cheek at times. Loved it, good job, I'll be ordering more books from this series.

Jumps around a bit chronologically!