Product Description

This vivid and and comprehensive account of the politics, religion, and culture of England in the century and a half after the Norman Conquest lays bare the patterns of everyday life, and increases our understanding of medieval society at a time when England was more closely tied to Europe than ever before. This was a period in which the ruling dynasty and military aristocracy were deeply enmeshed with the politics and culture of France. The book describes their conflicts and their preoccupations: the sense of honour, the role of violence, and the glitter of tournament, heraldry, and Arthurian romance. The author explores the mechanics of their government, and analyses the part played by the Church at a time of radical developments in religious life and organization. He investigates the role of ordinary men and women: the fundamental importance of the peasant economy, the growing urban and commercial arenas; and also their outlook on the world, including their views on the past; on sexuality; on animals; on death, the undead and the occult. The result is a fascinating and complex account of a period which begins with conquest and ends in assimilation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #606436 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 816 pages

John Gillingham, TLS
"This is an extraordinary and uncompromising book. Extraordinary because it offers a rich cascade of brilliant and thought-provoking analytical sketches and case studies, illuminating just about every conceivable aspect of the daily life of twelfth-century England, as well as some aspects which minds less imaginative than Robert Bartlett's might have thought inconceivable."

Review
Many readers of Robert Bartlett's volume in the New Oxford History of England will be delighted with his recreation of twelfth-century English society...He writes about an astonishing range of subjects using a remarkable assortment of sources. This is a 'must have' volume for every scholar's bookshelf, and there are few who will read it without learning something new. (Journal of Ecclesiastical History )

The discussions of religious practice and the course of life from cradle to grave (which draw heavily on clerical writing) are fascinating...His stage is thickly thronged with a rich diversity of beings, alive, dead, and even the undead. (Journal of Ecclesiastical History )

This is an extraordinary and uncompromising book. Extraordinary because it offers a rich cascade of brilliant and thought-provoking analytical sketches and case studies, illuminating just about every conceivable aspect of the daily life of twelfth-century England, as well as some aspects which minds less imaginative than Robert Bartlett's might have thought inconceivable. (John Gillingham, Times Literary Supplement )

There can be few who will not read this book with profit... good value...well illustrated...this volume is a good read, from whom all readers, at any levels, will learn much. (Journal of the Society of Archivists )

This is a superb work of scholarship that will inspire future generations to cherish and to further investigate the medieval past. No reader could fail to be impressed by its scope and its flair. (English Historical Review )

One of the most brilliant and idiosyncratic books ever to have been published on the history of medieval England. The freshness of Bartlett's approach is entirely exhilarating. Much as we might presume to know the chief twelfth-century sources, time after time Bartlett will throw in some new authority, or reintroduce us to the familiar, scattering spice for even the most jaded of palates...This book deserves to command a wide popular readership. (English Historical Review )

In bringing to life the anxieties of twelfth-century Englishmen, Bartlett rescues from oblivion sources which are either unknown or far too little known. (John Gillingham, Times Literary Supplement )

Continuity and Change
"Bartlett is adept at combining cultural, political and economic approaches, showing how these different lenses can disclose complementary and contradictory images of the past"

Customer Reviews

This is a really great book.
There are few history books that transport you back in the time like this book will. It does not give you a chronological list of events, instead studies the culture and people from the king to the people, their worldview and lifestyle. Wonderful!

Fantastic lecturer, amazing historian...
This book is an essential companion to any student studying the Norman or Angevin dynasty, or the period of history from 1066-1225. Robert Bartlett is Wardlaw Professor at St. Andrews University and anyone who has heard him lecture on this subject knows the sheer enormity of his personal knowledge and understanding. He writes with a glorious idiosyncratic brilliance so rare in the academic world, leaving a highly accesible book that thoroughly invokes the period.
If you're going to buy any book, buy this one. History doesn't get much more enticing than this.
I vote to promote Prof. Bartlett to a knighthood!

An exceptional study of England in the high Middle Ages
Robert Bartlett's contribution to the New Oxford History of England series is about a kingdom in transition. In 1075, England was a newly conquered realm of William of Normandy, who was transforming the sleepy monarchy of the Anglo-Saxons into a powerful feudal state. A century and a half later, his great-great-great grandson, Henry III, issued a modified Magna Charta that served as the foundation of English common law, establishing the right of the English aristocracy against the king. How this evolution took place forms just one aspect of this exceptional book, which addresses nearly every aspect of England's politics, culture, and society during this period.

In doing this, Bartlett adopts an analytical rather than narrative approach. Events are studied within the context of the broader patterns and developments of the era. This makes for a more challenging read but also a much more rewarding one, with insights contained on every page. Readers unfamiliar with the period should start with a survey such as David Carpenter's The Struggle for Mastery: Britain 1066-1284 (The Penguin History of Britain), but even knowledgeable students of the period will learn much from Bartlett's clear writing and perceptive analysis.