History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350

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Eurasian interactions
Provocative
A landmark of the "new" economic history
Great book, but still one sided
Continuity in global connections -- the rest of the history

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350
Janet L. Abu-Lughod
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195067746

Book Description

In this important study, Abu-Lughod presents a groundbreaking reinterpretation of global economic evolution, arguing that the modern world economy had its roots not in the sixteenth century, as is widely supposed, but in the thirteenth century economy--a system far different from the European world system which emerged from it. Using the city as the working unit of analysis, Before European Hegemony provides a new paradigm for understanding the evolution of world systems by tracing the rise of a system that, at its peak in the opening decades of the 14th century, involved a vast region stretching between northwest Europe and China. Writing in a clear and lively style, Abu-Lughod explores the reasons for the eventual decay of this system and the rise of European hegemony.

Customer Reviews:

Eurasian interactions.......2005-12-09

A work drawing on deep scholarship providing welcome adjustment to views that overstate Europe's precocity and importance before 1500. Europe was a peripheral backwater prior to its export of the Eurasian disease pool to the Americas (and even for some time after). Abu-Lughod examines each major area of the Eurasian trading network in term, bringing out how much events in one area were affected by changes elsewhere (in particular, how much Europeans were responding to such changes).

I also found Abu-Lughod's scepticism about grand conceptual schemas and strong preference for considering the complex texture of reality engaging. She sets out a highly informative history of the creation of an interacting Eurasian economy under the period of Mongol domination and how changes among the various participating powers (particularly China) resulted in the interactions falling back to a lower level. She also argues a power vacuum was set up in the Indian Ocean that the Europeans (first the Portugese, then the Dutch and finally the British) were able to fill. That there was a "Fall of the East" prior to there being a "Rise of the West". She does a nice job of debunking "cultural" and "Confucian-isolationism" explanations for China's shift, placing the public policy considerations the Ming court was dealing with in a more plausible context.

My first quibble is with the title. This is about the Eurasian system, not a global one, a point the author herself concedes (p.37). It is a "world" system only in terms of the Old World/New World usage and, to be fair, she is responding to Immanuel Wallerstein's coinage of the term. The second is she suffers from the modern academic fetish for shudder quotes, though at least she is often prepared to explain in more detail why concepts are problematic, rather than simply engaging in the tedious knowing-virtue wink. The worst bit of the book, as so often is the way, is when she attempts to look forward. The talking down of the stability of the current world-system, and the situation of the US in particular, reads rather poorly for a book published in 1989 with clearly no sense whatsoever of the impending collapse of the Soviet empire.

But the book is very readable and extremely informative, the personality of the author engaging. An excellent way of coming to grips with how global history works.

Provocative.......2005-02-12

This book is approaching the status of a classic. While a work of history, the author is not a historian but rather a sociologist with an interest in the role of cities. Perhaps because she was a disciplinary outsider not specializing in a given historical period, as well as being used to comparative analysis, Abu-Lughod adopted a cross-cultural approach. The starting point for this book was the prevailing belief that a world economy was created by Europeans in the early modern period. More naive interpretations saw this as a logical development of European capitalism and that capitalism was unique to Europe. A major point of this book is that a world economic system, spanning all of Eurasia and including Southeast Asia and Eastern Africa existed prior to the early modern period. This world system was based on pre-existing regional trade networks in the Eastern Mediterrenean, the Indian Ocean, Central Asia, and China. Some of these linkages, like the famous Silk road across Central Asia and trade across the Indian Ocean, were ancient.
Abu-Lughod reconstructs a true world economy stretching from western Europe to China reaching its peak during the 13th and 14th centuries and then declining. She shows that Europe joined this system relatively late and was a smaller component of these large trade networks. The peak of this world system is associated with the Mongol conquest of Central Asia and China. Mongol successes are seen as simultaneously making trade across Central Asia, the northern axis of the world system, and trade through the Indian Ocean and south China, the southern axis, more efficient. This lead to a Eurasian boom. As a corollary, Abu-Lughod explores the richly capitalist nature of trade in the Muslim, Indian, and Chinese regions making up the world system. Some of the institutional innovations attributed to Medieval and Renaissance European merchants may have been borrowed from the Muslim world.
If the Mongols were the inadvertant architects of this system, they were also the inadvertant cause of its collapse. The key event is the Black Death, a Eurasian pandemic which probably originated in central Asia and was spread by Mongol armies and trade made possible by their states. The resulting depopulations and political instability, including the Ming expulsion of the Mongol from China, crippled the Medieval world system, though it left intact regional trade networks, particularly in Asia that the Europeans would join and come to dominate in the Early Modern period.
A final and more controversial point made by Abu-Lughod is that the success of Europeans in subsequently reconstructing and dominating, in an unprecedented way, the Eurasian trade system was the withdrawal of the Chinese state from interest in trade. Under the later Ming, the powerful Chinese navy was dissolved and trade through southern China ceased to be an important issue for the Chinese state. The subsequent power vacuum made European domination possible. This may not be entirely correct but is argued well.
This book has become the point of departure for much subsequent important work in world history. It is well written and has a nice bibliography.

A landmark of the "new" economic history.......2004-03-17

There are few books in the field of economic history that I'd say are both landmarks and enjoyable to read. Assuming the reader has a great interest in history, Before European Hegemony is certainly one of them.

Abu-Lughod's excellent world systems survey details the inter-connections between pre-modern economies and societies of the era. There is also the sense of continuity between these pre-modern economic relationships and the modern era.

Special mention should be made of the fact that Before European Hegemony was one of the first of a new wave of economic, historical and sociological studies that de-emphasized the eurocentric histories that came before them. Guilty of the same simplistic approaches the eurocentric histories were charged with, for example giving the only reason for the rise of the West as military might, much of what followed Before European Hegemony was, in a word, garbage. Not so, this groundbreaking study.

Well researched, well written and highly recommended.

Great book, but still one sided.......2003-02-23

Dr. Abu Lughod's book is a great work of scholarship and a much needed addition to the "New Histories" being written that show the history as it really happened.

Still, as Gunder Frank mentions in his review of this book, Abu Lughod misses one point in her survey. She sees the world economy as a disconnected series of events, and much like Wallerstein, maintains the idea that world after 1500 hundred was not connected to the one before that date. She treats the Mongol trade network as an isolated world-system, instead of a period in the world system.

This is a small flaw in the face of so many larger problems we have in current historiography. A great read, and I suggest you read it in conjunction with ReOrient, The Colonizers' Model of the World, and World System History.

Continuity in global connections -- the rest of the history.......2001-12-18

In much the same way that Eric Wolf shows the world before European conquest in his book titled Europe and the People Without History starting in 1400, Abu-Lughod begins before the European trade routes by ship. She traces the cross-continent trade routes of India, China and the Mediterranean. By looking back to these early systems of trade, Abu-Lughod shows how ideas, foods, language and people were transported between regions of the earth long before colonialism took hold. By looking at movements of people and ideas before Europe's world domination, Abu-Lughod is able to take a new look at the future - a perspective that does not seem as deterministic as other historic views. Europe was not necessarily "destined" to become the greatest region on the planet and it need not be in the future.
This new look at history provides a wider framework from which to understand the current era. While it is true that computer technology and the spread of the Internet has been facilitated predominately by English-speaking programmers and subsequently English-based programs, this might not be the wave of the future. Looking at how vast regions of the planet interacted centuries ago provides a better base from which to understand how they might interact in the future. The people from the same geo-political regions that Abu-Lughod describes in her book are now "commuting" or "traveling" and conversing via electronic media. How will the new instrument of communication change the way these people share time and space?

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The Great Famine

The Great Famine
William Chester Jordan
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691011346

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The early 1300s must have seemed like the end of the world to the unfortunate inhabitants of Europe: brutally severe winters gave way to lightning storms and torrential, crop-destroying rains in spring, followed by cold summers and then bitter winters again. "The whole world was troubled," wrote one Austrian chronicler; yet that was only the beginning. Princeton University historian William Chester Jordan reconstructs the terrible decades when climatological change led to famine, disease, rampant inflation, and social breakdown across the European continent, a time when every prayer for relief was met by even crueler turns of fate.

Book Description

The horrors of the Great Famine (1315-1322), one of the severest catastrophes ever to strike northern Europe, lived on for centuries in the minds of Europeans who recalled tales of widespread hunger, class warfare, epidemic disease, frighteningly high mortality, and unspeakable crimes. Until now, no one has offered a perspective of what daily life was actually like throughout the entire region devastated by this crisis, nor has anyone probed far into its causes. Here, the distinguished historian William Jordan provides the first comprehensive inquiry into the Famine from Ireland to western Poland, from Scandinavia to central France and western Germany. He produces a rich cultural history of medieval community life, drawing his evidence from such sources as meteorological and agricultural records, accounts kept by monasteries providing for the needy, and documentation of military campaigns. Whereas there has been a tendency to describe the food shortages as a result of simply bad weather or else poor economic planning, Jordan sets the stage so that we see the complex interplay of social and environmental factors that caused this particular disaster and allowed it to continue for so long.

Jordan begins with a description of medieval northern Europe at its demographic peak around 1300, by which time the region had achieved a sophisticated level of economic integration. He then looks at problems that, when combined with years of inundating rains and brutal winters, gnawed away at economic stability. From animal diseases and harvest failures to volatile prices, class antagonism, and distribution breakdowns brought on by constant war, northern Europeans felt helplessly besieged by acts of an angry God--although a cessation of war and a more equitable distribution of resources might have lessened the severity of the food shortages.

Throughout Jordan interweaves vivid historical detail with a sharp analysis of why certain responses to the famine failed. He ultimately shows that while the northern European economy did recover quickly, the Great Famine ushered in a period of social instability that had serious repercussions for generations to come.

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The horrors of the Great Famine (1315 1322), one of the severest catastrophes ever to strike northern Europe, lived on for centuries in the minds of Europeans who recalled tales of widespread hunger, class warfare, epidemic disease, frighteningly high mortality, and unspeakable crimes. Until now, no one has offered a perspective of what daily life was actually like throughout the entire region devastated by this crisis, nor has anyone probed far into its causes. Here, the distinguished historian William Jordan provides the first comprehensive inquiry into the Famine from Ireland to western Poland, from Scandinavia to central France and western Germany. He produces a rich cultural history of medieval community life, drawing his evidence from such sources as meteorological and agricultural records, accounts kept by monasteries providing for the needy, and documentation of military campaigns. Whereas there has been a tendency to describe the food shortages as a result of simply bad weather or else poor economic planning, Jordan sets the stage so that we see the complex interplay of social and environmental factors that caused this particular disaster and allowed it to continue for so long. Jordan begins with a description of medieval northern Europe at its demographic peak around 1300, by which time the region had achieved a sophisticated level of economic integration. He then looks at problems that, when combined with years of inundating rains and brutal winters, gnawed away at economic stability. From animal diseases and harvest failures to volatile prices, class antagonism, and distribution breakdowns brought on by constant war, northern Europeans felt helplessly besieged by acts of an angry God--although a cessation of war and a more equitable distribution of resources might have lessened the severity of the food shortages. Throughout Jordan interweaves vivid historical detail with a sharp analysis of why certain responses to the famine failed.

Customer Reviews:

The Great Famine.......2007-04-28

Read this for graduate history course in medieval history.
William Jordan Book is great as a source material book. Excellent scholar. One of the 1st Economic, environmental historicists. A Good multi disciplinary approach. His mortality numbers tend to be on the conservative side. A food shortage is when 1 staple is unavailable or food unavailable for 1 year. Those items people crave are more expensive but are attainable. Great Famine is a catastrophic failure of agriculture. All food groups fail items unavailable for any price. Because of famine, you get weir foods like acorn bread, awful taste. 1315-22, does not affect Spain, Italy, Greece, and Scotland. Bad in Germany N. France, Scandinavia England, Ireland. 400,000sq. miles, 30 million people. Famine follows big population explosion 1100-1300. 1250 agricultural productivity is declining. As population increases technology in food production can't keep up. 3 field crop rotation means 1/3 of field is fallow. Harness technology goes to animal shoulder to increase productivity, better plough blades thus soil gets better aeration. Green manure is bean plants rich in nitrogen get plowed into ground, brown manure is animal and human waste. Cattle graze on land leaving droppings. 14 century animals not producing enough manure as #'s dwindle, Increase in population means more marginal land is being farmed not working out well, also means more calories burned working marginal land than being produced. Also means livestock have less land to graze on.

Page 12-13 Looks at David Arnolds 4 scenarios for the inset of famine. 1. Population numbers are higher than productive means. 2. Sustained failure of appropriate weather. 3. Problems of food distribution, from transportation and war. 4. Peasants not changing their growing methods to meet the problem. Jordan thinks the most troubling scenario is the last one.

We have good skeletal remains to show that their was a lot of bone problems from people working hard in the fields. Biggest cost for medieval people is food, 70% of income; housing is only 10% of income. When food in Paris increases 800% you know you will have food riots. No good social systems to deal with the problem. They ate their seed corn, grains, and rye susceptible to molds, and fungi poisoning people. Can't store grain for long periods of time, rats eat allot of grain in storage. There is no fallback for people agriculturally. Seeds produce 4 or 5 to 1. You get 4 seeds for 1 planted. Less animals means less manure. Chicken eggs are used to pay rent, chickens are the size of today's game hen's chickens get eaten fast.

Jordan says this won't happen today because we have global agriculture and world wide distribution system. Only happen in regions as political tool, like Darfur, or what Stalin did using food as a weapon. Long term suffering and starvation was more routine to these people's lives, did not affect them psychologically as the Black Death when you look at manuscript records. City people even send pirates out to take grain ships. Women survive better than men because they have more body fat.

Food hoarders, Jews as money lenders do not fair well with starving people going after them. Government starts to control food production like standardizing weight and size of bread loafs, some still do this today. Bread is important to people because of Eucharist. High prices cause a slow down of consumption, but it doesn't solve the problem. People will eat what you put in front of them. Stomachs will shrink.

Pigs survive best, they eat anything, rain doesn't bother them, they don't get rinderpest hooves don't rot. Cattle sheep get disease, sheep susceptible to cold. Horses stolen by the army. Short term 50% in herds, 75% drop long term. Wool income in England goes down. Who profits? Salt producers, need salt to make dairy products like cheese and to salt meat to preserve it. They use a lot of forest wood to make salt because they steam seawater. Some Lords and Abbots make profits. Many church lands are sold off, peasants are able to buy it cheap for those that have money, and some do, this makes them landed gentry in next century. Charity fails. Church can't run soup kitchens any more, but they do make money running a form of nursing home. Beggars increase, people turn to strange diets, roots, dirt, bark, shoes, etc.

Grains are known as cereals, British historians call grains corn not the same as Maze which we call corn. Corn is New World crop.

Primary cereal grain is wheat, high in gluttons, protein 13% in white bread, very desirable, for aristocracy. Easier to chew, 35-50% grain milled out of it. Average monastic person gets 2500-3000 calories, one of the better diets of the time. Rich eat no fruits because of sin of fruit from Tree of Knowledge. Peasant 2000-2200 calories, subsistence living. They are living on the margins. Livestock of the time smaller by 40%, people are smaller average height 5' 6". Protein intake is reason for this. Rickets, scurvy all problems. Cabbage only source of vitamin C for most Europeans. Pigs last longest since they eat anything.

1320-1330 2nd worst cold period in middle ages, 1310-1320 2nd worst time for excessive rains. 1314 bad rains in Summer in Germany. 1315 Baltic salt sea freezes over. All Rivers in Europe freeze over. This persists until 1322 in Baltic of that year snow stays on the ground all year round. Wars make things worse for people. People psychologically spooked by increase in meteor and comet activity.

The Great Famine of 1315-1317 (or to 1322) was the first of a series of large-scale crises that struck Europe early in the 14th century, causing millions of deaths over an extended number of years and marking a clear end to an earlier period of growth and prosperity during the 11th through 13th centuries. Starting with bad weather in the spring of 1315, universal crop failures lasted through 1316 until the summer of 1317; Europe did not fully recover until 1322. It was a period marked by extreme levels of criminal activity, disease and mass death, infanticide, and cannibalism. It had consequences for Church, State, European society and future calamities to follow in the 14th century.

Famine in the Medieval European context meant that people died of starvation on a massive scale. As brutal as they were, famines were familiar occurrences in Medieval Europe. As an example, localized famines occurred in France during the 14th century in 1304, 1305, 1310, 1315-1317 (the Great Famine), 1330-1334, 1349-1351, 1358-1360, 1371, 1374-1375 and 1390. In England, the most prosperous kingdom affected by the Great Famine, there were famines in 1315-1317, 1321, 1351, 1369, and more. For most people there was usually never enough to eat and life was a relatively short and brutal struggle to survive to old age, which might mean as young as 30 years old. According to official records of the British Royal family, the best off in society, the average life expectancy in 1276 was 35.28 years. Between 1301 and 1325 during the Great Famine, it was 29.84 while between 1348-1375 during the Plague it went to 17.33.

The Great Famine was restricted to Northern Europe, from Russia in the east to Ireland in the west, from Scandinavia in the north and bounded in the south by the Alps and the Pyrenees. During the Medieval Warm Period (the period prior to 1350) the population of Europe had exploded, reaching levels that were not matched again in some places until the 19th century (parts of France today are less populous than at the beginning of the 14th century). However, the yield ratios of wheat (the number of seeds one could eat per seed planted) had been dropping since 1280 and food prices had been climbing. In good weather the ratio could be as high as 7:1, while during bad years as low as 2:1--that is, for every seed planted, two seeds were harvested, one for next year's seed, and one for food. By comparison, modern farming has ratios of 200:1 or more.

However, there was one catastrophic dip in the weather during the Medieval Warm Period that coincided with the onset of the Great Famine. Between 1310 and 1330 northern Europe saw some of the worst and most sustained periods of bad weather in the entire Middle Ages, characterized by severe winters and rainy and cold summers. Changing weather patterns, the ineffectiveness of medieval governments in dealing with crises and a population level at a historical high water mark made it a time when there was little margin for error.

Great Famine
In the spring of 1315, unusually heavy rain began in much of Europe. Throughout the spring and summer, it continued to rain and the temperature remained cool. Under these conditions grain could not ripen. Grain was brought indoors in urns and pots. The straw and hay for the animals could not be cured and there was no fodder for the livestock. The price of food began to rise. In England, food that had sold for 20 shillings in the spring sold for 40 shillings by June, doubling in price. Salt, the only way to cure and preserve meat, was difficult to obtain because it could not be evaporated in the wet weather; it went from 30 shillings to 40 shillings. In Lorraine, wheat prices grew by 320 percent, making bread unaffordable to peasants. Stores of grain for long-term emergencies were limited to the lords and nobles. Because of the general increased population pressures, even lower-than-average harvests meant some people would go hungry; there was little margin for failure. People began to harvest wild edible roots, plants, grasses, nuts, and bark in the forests.

There are a number of documented incidents that show the extent of the famine. Edward II, King of England, stopped at Saint Albans on August 10, 1315 and no bread could be found for him or his entourage; it was a rare occasion in which the King of England, the most prosperous nation in Europe, was unable to eat. The French, under Louis X, tried to invade Flanders, but being in the low country of the Netherlands, the fields were soaked and the army became so bogged down they were forced to retreat, burning their provisions where they left them, unable to carry them out.

In the spring of 1316, it continued to rain on a European population deprived of energy and reserve to sustain itself. All segments of society from nobles to peasants were affected, most of all the peasants, who represented 95% of the population and who had no safety nets. To provide some measure of relief, the future was mortgaged by slaughtering the draft animals; eating the seed grain; abandoning children to fend for themselves (see "Hansel and Gretel"); and, among old people, voluntarily refusing food in hopes of the younger generation surviving. The chroniclers of the time wrote of many incidents of cannibalism. The height of the famine was reached in 1317 as the wet weather hung on. Finally, in the summer the weather returned to its normal patterns. By now, however, people were so weakened by diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis, tuberculosis, and other sicknesses, and much of the seed stock had been eaten, that it was not until 1325 that the food supply returned to relatively normal conditions and the population began to increase again. Historians debate the toll but it is estimated that between 10%-25% of the population of many cities and towns died. While the Black Death (1338-1375) would kill more, for many the Great Famine was worse. While the plague swept through an area in a matter of months, the Great Famine lingered for years, drawing out the suffering of those who would slowly starve to death, face cannibalism, child-murder, and rampant crime.

Consequences
The famine is called the Great Famine not only because of the number of people who died, or the vast geographic area that was affected, or the length of time it lasted, but also because of the lasting consequences. The first consequence was for the Church. No amount of prayer seemed effective against the causes of the famine. In a society where the final recourse to all problems had been religion, no amount of prayer was helping and the famine undermined the institutional authority of the Catholic Church. This helped lay the foundations for later movements that were deemed heretical by the Church because they opposed the Papacy. Second was the increase in criminal activity. Medieval Europe in the 13th century had already been a violent culture where rape and murder were demonstrably more common than in modern times. With the famine even those who were not normally inclined to criminal activity would resort to any means to feed themselves or their family. After the famine, Europe took on a tougher and more violent edge; it had become an even less amicable place than during the 12th and 13th centuries. The effects of this could be seen across all segments of society, perhaps the most striking in the way warfare was conducted in the 14th century during the bloody 100 Years War, versus the 12th and 13th centuries when nobles were more likely to die by accident in tournament games than on the field of battle. Third was the failure of the medieval governments to deal with the crisis. Just as God seemed unable or unwilling to answer prayers, the earthly powers were equally ineffective, eroding and undermining their power and authority. Fourthly, the Great Famine marked a clear end to an unprecedented period of population growth that had started around 1050; although some believe this had been slowing down for a few decades already, there is no doubt the Great Famine was a clear end of high population growth. Finally, the Great Famine would have consequences for future events in the 14th century such as the Black Death when an already weakened population would be struck again.

Recommended reading for those interested in medieval history.

Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800

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Trend-setting
Fantastic Survey!

Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400-800
Chris Wickham
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0199212961

Book Description

The Roman empire tends to be seen as a whole whereas the early middle ages tends to be seen as a collection of regional histories, roughly corresponding to the land-areas of modern nation states. As a result, early medieval history is much more fragmented, and there have been few convincing syntheses of socio-economic change in the post-Roman world since the 1930s. In recent decades, the rise of early medieval archaeology has also transformed our source-base, but this has not been adequately integrated into analyses of documentary history in almost any country. In Framing the Early Middle Ages Chris Wickham combines documentary and archaeological evidence to create a comparative history of the period 400-800. His analysis embraces each of the regions of the late Roman and immediately post-Roman world, from Denmark to Egypt. The book concentrates on classic socio-economic themes, state finance, the wealth and identity of the aristocracy, estate management, peasant society, rural settlement, cities, and exchange. These give only a partial picture of the period, but they frame and explain other developments. Earlier syntheses have taken the development of a single region as 'typical', with divergent developments presented as exceptions. This book takes all different developments as typical, and aims to construct a synthesis based on a better understanding of difference and the reasons for it.

Customer Reviews:

Trend-setting.......2007-03-04

Late Antiquity is still quite controversial. Its application, time boundaries, and geographic limits still a matter of debate. As such, theories about its true nature and its application to historical study is still undetermined and is being revised everyday.

This book, much like the book that landed 'Late Antiquity' as a free-standing period in English historical enquiry (Peter Brown's "The World of Late Antiquity") is a trend-setter. Wickham's excellent scholarship, plus the fact that he dares and explores new waters and concepts, is ground breaking and profound. This book is going to be the "Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World" of its generation and have many volumes written in "response" to it. A must have, no doubt about it, for anyone interested in the Late Antique and Early Medieval history, and a must read for anyone interested in pre-Industrial Revolution economic history, regardless of time and place!

Fantastic Survey!.......2006-09-04

Chris Wickham explores the world of the early Middle Ages in a systematic way. Using literary and archaeological evidence, Wickham describes the changes which took place in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa after the fall of Rome. He maintains that despite the great political upheavals of the time, local continuity was a hallmark of this period. Economic decline and regrowth were connected with changes in the power and wealth of the aristocracy, who also exercised lesser or greater control over the land and the people.

While this massive piece of scholarship does not address cultural or intellectual history, it provides a very clear picture of the political and economic changes that transformed the former Roman Empire during the years 400-800 A.D. The writing is lively and easy to read, and the work is well organized. The full index and large bibliography as well as the broad range of topics covered make this book an indispensible reference tool for anyone studying Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

A History of Business in Medieval Europe 1200-1550 (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks

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A History of Business in Medieval Europe 1200-1550 (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks
Edwin S. Hunt , and James Murray
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521499232

Book Description

A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550, demolishes the widely held view that the phrase "medieval business" is an oxymoron. The authors review the entire range of business in medieval western Europe, probing its Roman and Christian heritage to discover the economic and political forces that shaped the organization of agriculture, manufacturing, construction, mining, transportation, and marketing. Then they deal with the responses of businessmen to the devastating plagues, famines, and warfare that beset Europe in the late Middle Ages. Medieval businessmen's remarkable success in coping with this hostile new environment prepared the way for the economic expansion of the sixteenth century.

The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 9501350

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Comprehensive review of a misjudged era

The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 9501350
Robert S. Lopez
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521290465

Book Description

Professor Robert Lopez provides an incisive analysis of the economic structure of the Middle Ages. He makes use of modern economic concepts to explain how an underdeveloped economic system gave birth to the commercial revolution through which Europe succeeded in developing itself. The book goes far beyond the familiar picture of medieval European society, with its magnificent cathedrals and imposing castles, to concentrate instead on the walled cities and open countryside, for it was here that the revolution was born. Deftly and concisely, Professor Lopez traces the history of this remarkable economic upheaval which saw the rise of merchants and craftsmen and the decline of agricultural dependence by the society.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive review of a misjudged era.......2000-06-17

This book reveals that the middle ages were not dead time as most think but the beginning of a transition from self sufficiency to taking advantage of comparative advantage by trading with others. Lopez starts out with a review of the Roman world and its commerce, transitions to the impact of the barbarian invasions, and only then turns to the takeoff of commercial growth. He describes key factors in the takeoff as creation of an agricultural surplus, the business acumen of the Jews, the adventurousness of the Italians, the role of coins and credit, the value of contracts, and developments in transportation. Of particular interest to me were his comments on the objects and patterns of trade, the pre-Columbus Italian explorations for trade, and the role of guilds in furthering and hindering economic growth. The book is well written and easy to read. Readers of this book might also want to look at The Medieval Machine by Gimpel; Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by the Gies as well as Life in a Medieval City. Sacred Trust by Ekelund et al economically analyzes the medieval church as a business firm which also illustrates the commercial flavor of the times. See also N J G Pounds An Economic History of Medieval Europe, and also Gold and Spices.

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A poor atlas of a rich theme. A wasted opportunity.
An Excellent but Overpriced Book

The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History
John Haldon
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1403917728
Release Date: 2005-11-24

Book Description

This historical atlas charts key aspects of the political, social and economic history of the Byzantine Empire, the dominant Mediterranean power in the fifth and sixth centuries. Surrounded by foes who posed a constant threat to its very existence, it survived because of its administration, army and the strength of its culture, of which Orthodox Christianity was a key element. This medieval empire bridged the Christian and Islamic worlds from the late Roman periodthrough the late Middle Ages, but by the time of its demise at the hands of the Ottomans in 1453 the Byzantine empire was a shadow of its former self, restricted essentially to the city of Constantinople, modern Istanbul.

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A poor atlas of a rich theme. A wasted opportunity........2007-09-09

The sole reason not to regard this atlas a disappointment is comparison with Palgrave's historical atlases in general. Compared to the series they output, this one has some merits. Even that is in question though. Given this atlas's much higher price than that of the - also overpriced - rest, one might have felt justified expecting something classes better than the other mostly truly sloppy, pitiful, uninformative, not just unreliable but often positively misleading, superficial non-quality. (Though the WWII history atlas can be regarded as an exception, and to be fair, there may be more, as I have not seen as yet one or two of the series, only the bulk of it). It is not classes better, however, only a little better than those.

One would have been justified to expect for the audaciously inflated price an atlas at par with publications such as Hewsen's Historical Atlas of Armenia, the Brill historical atlases (that with all their shortcomings are at least presented to a high standard), or even Schwartzberg's Historical Atlas of South Asia. Not so. This atlas is a poor two colour output where the main improvement vis-à-vis other Palgrave atlases is the this time (at least in the main) decently drawn geographical base. This is not to say that cartography as a whole is of a good standard. The handling of annotation in particular is often poor.

The atlas also comes short of other, perhaps more substantial expectations that one can have from an academic work of the pretended kind that it is. Time and again the specific maps are not original creations merely adaptations of others published elsewhere. At times this is acknowledged, at times it is not. Map 5.3. e.g. is a mostly unchanged redrawing of map 40. of Toynbee's Historical Atlas (V. XI of A Study of History). There is no reference to this fact. At least some of the few changes that were made are for the worse, the result being utterly wrong. Such is the depiction of Sirmion Theme as it was done.

This touches on what is the main problem. There are shocking errors. At times the results of just seriously careless cartography, but that's no excuse. I am not at home with some highly specialised data such as whereabouts of mints at specific periods, details of trade or defence, so the mapping of these and comparable issues just might be correct, but I have my doubts. This is because perusing the content of maps where I am not without background information I identified regularly careless inaccuracies of almost incredible kind and quantity. This discredits the trust one can have towards the reliability of the entire atlas.

A few instances.

Map 2.3
1. The word `Slavs' on this map dealing with issues of C5-C6 is deposited in modern Slovakia i.e. totally outside the area where Slavs then lived, or at best at its border. The area where Slavs really did live was meanwhile left empty.
2. The key suggests Slav presence on the Western Balkans/Pannonia in 535-550. In reality Slavs entered this parts only after the appearance of the Avars in the Carpathian basin, i.e. 567.
3. It is wholly inappropriate how and where the word `Burgundians' is placed on the map. Any reader not at home with the releavant facts as they really were can not but be substantially misled by this. Those at home with the facts let their jaw drop.
4. The name of the "East Roman Empire" (at other parts of the atlas "Eastern Roman Empire") itself is also quite ill located, partly inside - partly outside the area concerned though there was plenty of room to place it to the middle of it that was left empty.

Map 2.6
1. The state name `Bornu-Kanem' is featured on the map of "Imperial neighbours" that deals with the subject in about 600. In reality the notion appeared only quite a few centuries later. Similar objection can be made to the presence of the name `Darfur' whilst the then existing important state of Ethiopia or Abyssinia, or Axum (as a state) is entirely absent.
2. At the location of modern Cairo "Babylon" features.

Map 2.7
It is absurd to locate the `Avars' east of the Carpathians in 600. By then the Avars already spent decades in the area where this map shows `Slav groups'

Map 6.4
Themes (units of administration) are located at the northwest of the Empire rather ludicrously. Their frontiers are wholly misplaced, their entire location is completely wrong. Theme Arentanoi was in reality roughly where Terbounia is shown, yet the map locates the former so far north that finds room to (ill) place another theme (Zachloumoi) in between them. One theme (in modern Bulgaria) that is separated by frontiers from others, is left unnamed. It's not that its name was left out. One of the frontier lines separating the area from a seemingly other theme (Makedonia) is superfluous. This, and more (vast areas of both the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary are assigned totally without any justification to a highly inflated sized Croatia; Bosnia is named incongruously) create a feeling that the map as a whole is unreliable, its data is not to be trusted. Indeed the depiction of eastern part of the Empire is no less distorted. Ani, for instance that was over 100 miles N-NE to Lake Van is shown NW to the lake, and much closer. Vaspurakan that was really around Lake Van at every direction except for the west, is placed entirely wrongly to the west of it without even touching the lake. This degree of sloppiness amounts to cynical contempt of the reader.

Map 2.8
1. It is wrong to replace the correct term `Khaganate' by `Khanate', be it Avar, Khazar, or Western Turk.
2. Toledo is completely ill located. It is in reality far without the map frame, so it should not feature at all.

Map 8.1
1. The word `Transylvania' dominates the area in the Carpathian basin between the Danube and the Carpathians (part of which is ill termed). This in 1025, when the concept as Transylvania as a political or administrative entity was as yet unknown for centuries to come. Even when it appeared it applied to an area far smaller than indicated in this atlas. The term `Kingdom of Hungary', which alone should feature for the area is delegated at its northern edge, in part without it.
2. Any concept of `Slovenia' is wholly out of place this date, yet it is depicted nearly 900 years earlier than the concept was coined.
3. No publication, but especially not a supposedly scholarly work should in any way use the the term `Russia' as this map does for what was to be named `Rus'.

Map 8.2.
There was no `Slovakia' at the time of Charlemagne. The very concept did not exist for over a millennium to come. Yet it was being placed firmly in the map. Such things amount to raving ignorance. In case it was that of the cartographer only, as one hopes, the question is what were the author and the editors doing when they were, as one expects, checking the result? In fact what made the cartographer to put concepts on the map that the author was not asking for? One fears that the author may not be wholly innocent.

This ought to be enough for illustration. There are numerous other, possibly worse offenders, among them is the showing of the states of Moldavia and Walachia in 1320 when none yet existed. (Walachia was born soon after, but its extent was even then far smaller than shown.) This on Map 11.2c where also other problems abound such as the uninformed ill-location of Slavonia that is placed where it is as from post C18 only, and the naming of `Dobrudhza' that is about as anachronistic as would be the naming of an airport J.F.K. in the 1920's. I `d better stop.

It is a great pity that such a deserving subject as the history of the Byzantine state was not dealt with when approached at long last in an atlas format properly. The result - as far at least as the maps, i.e. the essence of any atlas work go, is woefully inadequate.

An Excellent but Overpriced Book.......2005-12-25

John Haldon's "The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History" is the only historical atlas of the Byzantine Empire available in English. As such, this historical atlas is very good at making a clear and concise general picture of Byzantine history. The overall layout of the atlas is like that of a history textbook, divided thematically with sections on the economy, the church, administration, and the military. There are also three sections in the book, 4th-7th centuries, 7th-11th centuries and 11th-15th centuries. Haldon has provided numerous well-written articles on these topics and this book is an excellent compliment to any general history of the Byzantine Empire. The real strength of "The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History" is that it is based on solid research.

There are however some problems, the book only contains 187 pages and 84 maps, not 256 pages and 125 maps as originally listed. As well, the maps tend to be small and are only tri-colored, gray/blue/white. There also are no photos or plates. So, if you are looking for an exciting historical atlas with detailed and visually appealing images, this book may be disappointing.

"The Palgrave Atlas of Byzantine History" deserves five stars for content alone. If you can afford this expensive book and if you are fond of Byzantine history, it is a good book.

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Heavy reading for numismatists, historians, and ... DMs.

Money and its Use in Medieval Europe
Peter Spufford
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521375908

Book Description

This is the first full-scale study of the history of money, not merely of coinage, to have been written for medieval Europe. The book is not limited to one country, or to any one period or theme, but extracts the most important elements for the historian across the broadest possible canvas. Its scope extends from the mining of precious metals on the one hand, to banking, including the use of cheques and bills of exchange, on the other. Chapters are arranged chronologically, rather than regionally or thematically, and offer a detailed picture of the many and changing roles played by money, in all its forms, in all parts of Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Thus money is seen as having differing significances for differing parts of individual societies. The book shows money moving and changing as a result of war and trade and other political, economic and ecclesiastical activities without regard for national barriers or the supposed separation between 'East' and 'West'.

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Heavy reading for numismatists, historians, and ... DMs........2003-11-02

Peter Spufford's highly detailed history of Medieval European money is an invaluable reference book for numismatists who want to know deep details of the coins they study, and for historians interested in the impact of trade, plunder, metal mining, and industry on the Medieval economy.

Strangely, what I found it most useful for was as an aid to running fantasy role-playing games (e.g., Dungeons & Dragons). Spufford explains the impact of inflation in Medieval economies caused by the rapid influx of ready money (from the silver mines of Bohemia, for example), which would closely parallel the impact of a treasure hoard brought to a civilized community by fantasy adventurers.

Likewise, Spufford deals with the shortage of precious metals and their impact on coinage: debasement, depreciation, and depression, as "white" (silver) money gradually becomes "black" (base metal) coinage. DMs could readily reduce the impact of inflation in their campaigns by having adventurers discover a hoard of debased coinage with only a limited amount of "good" gold and silver coins. Rather than assuming that "treasure types" in monster hoards and lairs are good coinage all of the time, even a cursory study of "Money and Its Uses" should give the DM ideas for tossing in debased coinage.

Debased coins in hoards could, in turn, become adventure hooks if the player characters actually bother to study what they have found: why, for example are the coins of King Poobah IV mostly lead mixed with a small amount of silver when his father, King Poobah III, issued sound coins of good silver? Did something happen to cut off the silver supply? Is there perhaps an orc-infested silver mine somewhere nearby? As Spufford indicates -- primarily in relation to gold -- enemy action could off one state from its supply of precious metals in some other part of the world, enriching the enemy at the expense of the suddenly deprived state. In a fantasy campaign, the enemy might well be orcs, a dragon, or a lich instead of Turks or Mongols. On the other hand, a third state might well profit by trading with the first state's enemy. (In The Forgotten Realms Campaign setting, imagine Calimshan suddenly boycotting Waterdeep to trade exclusively with Amn, and you have a parallel with the commercial rivalry of, for example, Venice and Genoa trying to snare trade with the Muslim East.)

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Impressive work!

Masterful explanation of Economics during the Middle Ages

Outstanding history of the Middle Ages Revising Assumptions

Interesting Reading!

Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe
Henri Pirenne
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade

Mohammed and Charlemagne

Feudal Society, Volume 1

The Making of the Middle Ages

The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 9501350

ASIN: 0156275333

Book Description

A great Belgian historian recounts the economic and social evolution of Western Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the mid-fifteenth century. Translated by I. E. Clegg.

Customer Reviews:

Impressive work!.......2002-10-17

Pirenne's book first appeared in print in 1933, so I have to admit I was a little leery about reading it even though I have an interest in feudal economics. I was concerned that it would be a stuffy tome that was written in a dense and archaic academic style. To my surprise, this book is an extraordinarily good read, most interesting, and very informative. And unlike many books on this subject, a casual reader can be assured that a master's level background on the subject is not necessary to read this book.

Picking up at the end of the Roman Empire and running through approximately the middle 1500s, Pirenne tackles the full spectrum of economic and sociological issues as they evolved throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. Specifically, he relates how commerce was revived after the break-up of the economic and cultural stability that existed in the ancient world. Concepts such as the re-issuance of a currency, the rebirth of a money economy, rediscovery of credit, and how urban industry developed are covered and explained in detail. This is a very complete picture of economic and sociological circumstances that existed during the middle ages, as you are likely to see.

Pirenne takes the reader on a journey that attempts to plug the Medieval Period knowledge gap with a detailed explanation of economic development. Geographically (and culturally) he is able to discuss developments throughout all of Europe, from the Mediterranean to the North Sea. If you are interested in learning more about conditions in Europe during the Middle Ages and want a fuller understand of how the western economic system developed, pick up this book

Masterful explanation of Economics during the Middle Ages.......2002-10-08

Outstanding history of the Middle Ages Revising Assumptions.......2002-01-25

This wonderfully readable book provides, in a little more than 200 pages no less, a concise summary of economic development and social history during the much derided, abused and forgotten Middle Ages and also summarizes Pirenne's radical views about the real cause of the Dark Ages (he proposes that the Arab Conquest of the Mediterranean basin and Spain and not the Germanic invasions caused the collapse of European Civilization). He also explores, in outline, the general economic rise of Europe after the year 1000, culminating in medieval high point of the mid-Fourteenth Century and the sort of stability that lasted from that period (1350) until the Age of Exploration began and radically altered everything again. It was in the Low Countries and Italy that "capitalism" and the first industrial revolution really began and Pirenne shows how and why this occurred.

In this day and age where most people's image of the Middle Ages, if they have one, is based on movies like Kevin Costner's godawful "Robin Hood" and the fun, but totally make-believe, "A Knight's Tale" this book sets forth, concisely, the fascinating complexity of the age that established Christianity as the faith of Europe and the political-social system that ruled 3/4s of the Earth's surface until 1918 and whose vestiges we can still see in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, et al.

Educated people have taken Gibbon's dismissive derision of the Middle Ages as a period of nothing but violence, superstition and stagnation. Pirenne demolishes Gibbon's amazingly shallow view with a wealth of detail and vivid, easily readable narrative. Although not the masterpiece of literature that Gibbon produced, this volume avoids the joyful boredom that so many writers of economic history seem to delight in inflicting upon their readers.

The translation from the French by I.E. Clegg is smooth and idiomatic. Pirenne, who apparently spoke English fluently, helped to prepare the translation.

The only irritating part of the book is the presence of several large blocks of untranslated Latin and Old French. Given the general ignorance of Latin (and I am one of the ignorant, I am ashamed to say), Clegg or Pirenne should have translated it for the benefit of the Latinless. Although I read French with some ability, the Old French (pre-1300) uses spellings and some words that I simply can't understand. Modern French dictionaries are useless. Harcourt-Brace should find some present-day academic to "edit" a new edition and translate these passages! A smoother typeface than the ancient "Times-Roman" would also be nice.

All in all, if you have any interest in medieval history (especially if you are of European descent) or wish to understand how the market system of economics took form, I highly, highly recommend this book!

Interesting Reading!.......2000-03-30

Normally I'm don't read much history...but this book really was very interesting. The way it is written is timeless, very intelligent, informative, and enjoyable! If you like medieval history, you will enjoy this.

The Goodman of Paris (Le Menagier de Paris): A Treatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by A Citizen of Paris, c.1393

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The Goodman of Paris (Le Menagier de Paris): A Treatise on Moral and Domestic Economy by A Citizen of Paris, c.1393

Manufacturer: Boydell Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1843832224
Release Date: 2006-03-30

Book Description

The Goodman of Paris (Le Ménagier de Paris) wrote this book for the instruction of his young wife around 1393. He was a wealthy and learned man, a member of that enlightened haute bourgeoisie upon which the French monarchy was coming to lean with increasing confidence.When he wrote his Treatise he was at least sixty but had recently married a young wife some forty years his junior. It fell to her to make his declining years comfortable, but it was his task to make it easy for her to do so. The first part deals with her religious and moral duties: as well as giving a unique picture of the medieval view of wifely behaviour it is illustrated by a series of stories drawn from the Goodman's extensive reading and personal experience.In the second part he turns from theory to practice and from soul to body, compiling the most exhaustive treatise on household management which has come down to us from the middle ages. Gardening, hiring of servants, the purchase and preparation of food are all covered, culminating in a detailed and elaborate cookery book. Sadly the author died before he could complete the third section on hawking, games and riddles.This unique glimpse of medieval domestic life presents a worldly, dignified and compelling picture in the words of a man of sensibility and substance.The distinguished historian EILEEN POWER was Professor of Economic History at the University of Cambridge.

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