The Dark Ages an age of light

Summary: The early Middle Ages have been dismissed as a step backwards for civilization-a barbaric time in which warfare and conquest eclipsed learning and progress. But were the Dark Ages really so bleak? Art historian Waldemar Januszczak says no, and then takes us on an artistic journey back to this much-maligned epoch to reveal the evidence. He travels the world, finding beauty and refinement where one might have expected only brutality and destruction. Witness the mysteries of early Christian art, Islam's mosques, Anglo-Saxon metalwork, the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, and more.