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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 also find them on YouTube, iTunes 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, 1,500 Free Online Courses from Top Universities. Below, we've added a list of the key texts used in the course:

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