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Title: Feudal Society: Social Classes and Political Organization by Marc Bloch, L.A. Manyon ISBN: 0-226-05979-0 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: March, 1982 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Feudalism as a social type
Comment: This book might be the most widely read among Bloch¡¯s works who is the pioneer of Annal school. This book typifies the methodology of Annal school. History as a science took off in the 19th century. But Bloch argued that it was not history but just chronicles of events and political episodes. Bloch posed the fundamental questions: ¡®What is the history?¡¯ and ¡®What does history serve for?¡¯ To be a science, the object of history should be not the particular but the universal. Bloch did not think the universal law is possible in history. Then, the object of historical research should be the relation which may refer not to the law but to structure. This structure sets the boundary (or in Braudel¡¯s word, the possible and the impossible) on the everyday life, and has the not-so-easily changeable long-term duration (or in Braudel¡¯s term, longue duree). Whereas Braudel¡¯s trilogy, ¡®Civilization and Capitalism¡¯ is about the capitalism as longue duree (for more detail, see my reviews on those volumes), Bloch¡¯s ¡®Feudal Society¡¯ is about the feudalism as longue duree.
Marxists and others maintained the feudalism originated from the sudden and violent collision between Roman society and German society. It¡¯s the child born from the violent and coercive marriage. But Bloch argues that resulting form of feudalism had its origin not directly in German invasion but in subsequent invasions of the Moslem, the Norman, and the Hungarian. These added up to the uncontrollable chaos all over Western Europe, and ended in the collapse of effective ruling of the state. Feudal system as we know emerged in this stalemate which Frank empire and other states of the time faced. State apparatus could not be maintained for state could not pay bureaucrats salary. Frank empire pioneered the alternative system which was later known as feudalism. What characterizes feudalism is the unique social type based on the principle of subordination and custody. The principle is similar to the patron/client relationship of Roman age. But feudal one is based on the principle of contract which is premised on reciprocity. Put another way, feudalism is the network of reciprocal relationship of rights and responsibility from king to serf. Ruling class could not wield power over serf in unilateral way. In this vein, feudal system is both social (between classes) and political (among ruling class) relationships. Bloch maintained this relationship should be called as feudalism. It¡¯s a social type which is not limited to the economic terrain as Marxists argued.
Rating: 5
Summary: On the top ten list for medieval studies
Comment: Bloch's work is one of the ten most important and influential books on medieval Europe. Bloch displays true excellence in sholarship and narration. Nothing is stated without factual documentation to support it, and no information is carried beyond its logical conclusions. It is essential to read this two volume work before moving too deeply into medieval studies. Combine this work with Strayer's Feudalism (out of print, unfortunately) and you will have a good understanding of what society was like in a good portion of the Middle Ages.
Rating: 5
Summary: Lords of the Land: Marc Bloch's Feudalism - Masterful Work
Comment: Marc Bloch's Feudal Society is the most informative and by far the best documented treatise one is likely to encounter among all the books and articles ever written on this subject. Bloch cogently remarked, in effect, that a land without a Lord is a land without a history, and that of course is a land without records - records which document and address not only the daily issues and encounters of classes in feudal society, but which also inform readers of the critical changes over time, in the passing of the first and second feudal age and its dissolution in the rise of capitalist social formations. Hardly a line was written without ample documentation. It is a wonderful companion to Carl Stephenson's slender volume, Mediaeval Feudalism, on feudal social and political institutions.
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Title: Making of the Middle Ages by Richard W. Southern ISBN: 0300002300 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: December, 1953 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Daily Life in the World of Charlemagne (Middle Ages) by Pierre Riche, Jo Ann McNamara ISBN: 0812210964 Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press Pub. Date: March, 1988 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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Title: Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages by Richard William Southern ISBN: 0140137556 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: August, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Montaillou : The Promised Land of Error by Emmanuel LeRoy Ladruie, Barbara Bray ISBN: 0394729641 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 12 July, 1979 List Price(USD): $18.15 |
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Title: The Civilization of the Middle Ages: A Completely Revised and Expanded Edition of Medieval History by Norman F. Cantor ISBN: 0060925531 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 03 August, 1994 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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