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Title: The First European Revolution, C. 970-1215 (Making of Europe) by R. I. Moore ISBN: 0-631-22277-4 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: October, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $33.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Dark ages made bright and alive
Comment: This is an excellent book for those who wish to delve deeply into medieval history and can handle a book without pictures and illustrations, apart from a few maps. R.I. Moore, a British professor and editor for Blackwell publishers, deserves high points for a thorough scientific investigation, but also for describing his theories accessibly and vividly.
The title of the book heralds a new perspective, and Moore convinces his reader that changes occurred during this rather anonymous period in European history, after Charlemagne, but before the High Middle Ages, that were as fundamental as the French and Industrial Revolutions.
He argues that no real civilization existed in Europe before the tenth century, and that a new system of farming, administration and inheritance developed during the period 970-1215, which was a necessary foundation for all later appearances of universities, cities, commerce, castles, kings and taxes.
It is the birth of the feudal system, of course, which is a plain historical fact. What sets this book apart from many other history books is Moore's thourough grip on the minds and reasons of the actual people involved. Through sharp analysis of documents and wisely chosen and interpreted quotes, he makes the people of the period - sons of noblemen without an obvious career, intellectual monks, religious protesters, nomad farmers - come alive as thinking human beings with a rational cause for their actions. Moore shows how the actions and choices, the logic of the times, build up to a new social order, new customs and institutions, and introduce concepts as tithe, diocese, and cerealization.
His focus is mostly on France, where the development started, and partly on England, where it was perfected, and helped kings unify a nation. But he also shows how the Vikings contributed to European integration, and, very interestingly, compares Europe with the Chinese medieval empire, which lacked a few dynamic ingredients. One basic cause seems to have been the power hunger of Charlemagne's warlords, who, when the yearly conquests stopped, turned their attention inwards, to their own subservient farmers.
Moore abstains from elaborating on abstract theories, and appears to let his source material come alive on its own accord. But this painstaking build-up of details from many kinds of sources into social and economic facts, and drawing conclusions about the mentality of the people involved is the method of the Annales school, of which Jacques Le Goff is an honoured representative. Le Goff is the editor of this series on The Making of Europe, of which this book is one in a long line. The series is published by Blackwell Pulishers in cooperation with four other European publishers.
Writing European history seems to be a Millennium Project for many publishers. Blackwells could be expected to do better than most. This study neatly shows how economic reorganization on the very local level can lead to integration on a national, and European, level. These times are politically opportune for that kind of thought, aren't they?
Moore's method of investigating and explaining is very illuminating and clear, and if the approach is new to this period, the title of the book is well motivated. The Annales approach often combines with good, vivid writing, and this book is also an example of that.
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Title: The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity 200-1000 Ad (Making of Europe) by Peter Robert Lamont Brown ISBN: 0631221387 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Making of Europe by Robert Bartlett ISBN: 0691037809 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 23 August, 1994 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: The Myth of Nations : The Medieval Origins of Europe by Patrick J. Geary ISBN: 0691114811 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 13 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Great Famine by William Chester Jordan ISBN: 0691058911 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 15 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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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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