Just finished this book, and found it to be a pretty interesting Anthropological look at a historical time period.
Have you read it Veeky Forums?
What did you think? Good info/insight into the world (or at least England) as it was then?
Similar books? Books that do the same thing better?
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>WE WUZ
What did he mean by this
Theres 2 black people on the frontpage
>book about medieval Europe
>oh cool I love that time perio-
>14th century
Every time.
>being retarded
Late Middle Ages is still Middle Ages, man. I think a big part of it in regards to something like this (which is more of an ethnography than anything else) is that you need a lot of specific types of sources to get any really concrete info on what people were like, and the further back you go the more scarce the info is and thus the more interpretive and archaeological you need to be.
Look at the amount of disinfo floating around about Vikings and Romans.
>Late Middle Ages is still Middle Ages, man
Yeah but it's all anyone ever fucking talks about, and when they're not talking about that they're talking about Charlemagne like he's the only thing of note from the early middle ages. And of course I never see a book about the high middle ages, not ever. If I'm lucky a survey of all 3 periods might have a chapter devoted to it.
Because, again, they write a lot more down, and a lot more of it survived.
Not that I don't get this point, believe me. Stuff like this always gets me salivating for a similar thong about the High Middle Ages of the """Dark""" Ages
I think that cover is trigger worthy with the inconsistencies in script. I think Medieval England gets way, way too much attention. I think I'm sick of 14th century like that other guy. I think the 13th century is far, far more interesting.
> The Anglosphere gets a lot more info about Medieval England than places it doesn't descend linguistically culturally from
Gee I wonder why.
So no-one's read it. Cool.
You should read it, Veeky Forums. An ethnography of a past time and place is a neat idea and I wish it was a more popular concept
I read it, I quite liked it
I read it a few years ago. I can't remember much about it but I remember it being fairly good in layman's terms. I wouldn't cite it academically though
is this summary accurate?
theguardian.com
if so, the books is worthless
>I wouldn't cite it academically though
If course not. Though its bibliography was really extensive from what I remember.
All in all though I really found the concept novel and engaging, and would love to see more books taking an anthropological approach to a specific culture and time period.
I've read it. Multiple times and lent it to others so often the cover is hanging by a thread.
More history books need to be like this. The travel guide style and semi-first person perspective makes it all seem much more real and alive. There's a few errors like the description of women wearing corsets, but unless you are sone kind of edgy turboautist, that shouldn't deminish the rest of the material.
There's also the Time Travellers Guide to Elizabethan England, though I couldn't get into it
What exactly about that review makes you think it would be "worthless"?
Kek confirms that this book is good.
Buying it now, shadilay.
PRAISE KEK
>dem quints tho
>using chaucer as your basis of medieval life
>turning an actual time period where people lived into a slide show of an entire century
I don't know, I haven't read the book. That review makes it seem like he was trying to make some strange story to shove facts at you rather than actually depict medieval life. It seems like he's trying to dress up life like a movie. That's just going off that one review, I'm not condemning the book and I don't really intend to, but I won't give it a second thought (there are better reads) if that review is mostly correct. Clarify please.
There is no story. It is literally a travel guide to 14th century England. He simply tells you what you would see, hear, wear, eat and do in particular places, with some talk of how some of those will change as the century progresses.
oh, that's much different than i expected. well, it sounds interesting, I'll see if I can find a copy. thanks for the clarification. idk why but i expected it to be like a hitcher hikers guide to the galaxy, which i did not like
Haven't read this, but Ian Mortimer is a fantastic author, his series biographing English monarchs is fantastic and really brings each one to life and unlike most books tries to judge what their character was like based on a number of different sources, would recommend to anyone with an interest in the era
It's worth checking out, simply for the unusual writing style. Probably fairly cheap secondhand on Amazon by now too.
Read a while ago. Can't remember too much. I did enjoy it. I thought it was great learning about the more everyday way society functioned back them, and seeing how people used to live.
Barely related but has anyone read that retelling of William Marshal's story that makes use of other contemporary sources? The greatest knight or something
Seen it around and thinking of reading it some time after I've cleared my reading list
>Similar books
Ruth Goodman's 'How to Be a Victorian' is similar and I enjoyed it. She also has 'How to be a Tudor' but I haven't read it yet.
here's some others if you're interested. you can get the greatest knight off of libgen btw though i haven't read it myself
Crouch, David. William Marshal: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147–1219. London: Longman, 2002.
>This biography is an entertaining read in addition to being scholarly, informative, and the most comprehensive of the modern biographies of the Marshal. Popular with students and affordable, it has useful maps, genealogy, and illustrations.
Duby, Georges. William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry. New York: Pantheon, 1986.
>A short biography, informal in style and lacking references. Brief biography.
On a similar note, all of the Farm series are good introductions to everyday life in
life in a medieval town was gud. there's also life in a medieval castle which i haven't read.