Feudal Society, Vol 1 : Vol 1: The Growth and Ties of Dependence

Feudal Society discusses the economic and social conditions in which feudalism developed providing a deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe. Abstract: Feudal Society discusses the economic and social conditions in which feudalism developed providing a deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe Feudal Society is the masterpiece of one of the greatest historians of the century. Marc Bloch's supreme achievement was to recreate the vivid and complex world of Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. For Bloch history was a living organism, and to write of it was an endless process of creative evolution and of growing understanding. The author treats feudalism as a vitalising force in European society. He surveys the social and economic conditions in which feudalism developed; he sees the structures of kinship which underlay the formal relationships of vassal and overlord. For Bloch these relationships are mutual as much as coercive, the product of a dangerous and uncertain world. His insights into the lives of the nobility and the clergy and his deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe, are profound and memorable. Content: Book Cover Title Contents FOREWORD BY T.S. BROWN page INTRODUCTION: GENERAL SCOPE OF THE INQUIRY MOSLEMS AND HUNGARIANS THE NORTHMEN SOME CONSEQUENCES AND SOME LESSONS OF THE INVASIONS MATERIAL CONDITIONS AND ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS MODES OF FEELING AND THOUGHT THE FOLK MEMORY THE INTELLECTUAL RENAISSANCE IN THE SECOND FEUDAL AGE THE FOUNDATIONS OF LAW page THE SOLIDARITY OF THE KINDRED GROUP CHARACTER AND VICISSITUDES OF THE TIE OF KINSHIP VASSAL HOMAGE THE FIEF GENERAL SURVEY OF EUROPE THE FIEF BECOMES THE PATRIMONY OF THE VASSAL THE MAN OF SEVERAL MASTERS. VASSAL AND LORDTHE PARADOX OF VASSALAGE THE MANOR page SERVITUDE AND FREEDOM TOWARDS NEW FORMS OF MANORIALISM. 'YOU see before you the wrath of the Lord breaking forth. . . . There is naught but towns emptied of their folk, monasteries razed to the ground or given to the flames, fields desolated. . . . Everywhere the strong oppresseth the weak and men are like fish of the sea that blindly devour each other. A Two-volume Set Which Discusses The Economic And Social Conditions In Which Feudalism Developed, In Order To Provide A Deeper Understanding Of The Processes At Work In Medieval Europe.