Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Now in my top 10 history books of all time

I read history almost exclusively as a pastime. This book is relatively short and absolutely eye-opening in concept and detail. Jean Gimpel's essential observation is that the 11th-13th centuries were ages of consistent technological advancement and standards of living, and really aren't the 'dark ages' at all. Much of this technology/knowledge was lost during the subsequent continent-wide warfare and black death of the 14th-15th centuries. In terms of large scale industry (e.g. the thousands of labor-saving water mills catalogued in the Domesday book) organization (some of the earliest corporate structures were these same water mills) Europe was already very advanced 900 years ago.This book provides great data on the period while forcing us to rethink how primitive those times really were. Gimpel's book was originally published in 1976. This republication is well deserved.