Medieval or Early Modern : The Value of a Traditional Historical Division

For Half A Millennium It Has Been Customary For Many Historians To Refer To The Period Between The Fall Of Rome And The End Of The Fifteenth Century As 'medieval', A Tradition Which Hardened Into A Professional Orthodoxy During The Nineteenth Century. In The Late Twentieth Century, It Also Seemed Convenient To Many To Describe The First Half Of A Steadily Lengthening Modern Period As 'early Modern', Which Also Hardened Into An Orthodoxy Among English-speakers, At Least, By The 1980s. Both Ter ...