Synopses & Reviews
In an extended foreword, specially prepared for this new impression, J.C. Holt asserts categorically "that Domesday Book and Beyond remains the greatest single book on English medieval history." Its lucidity, subtlety, compass, and (remarkably) statistical facility stand quite unsurpassed and, as Professor Holt demonstrates, many of the arguments that have dominated English medieval scholarship during the ensuing ninety years stem directly from Maitland's own hypotheses and conclusions.
Synopsis
That Maitland's hypotheses and conclusions should still be central to such a debate is not the least remarkable feature of this extraordinary book.
Synopsis
In his foreword Professor Holt looks afresh at this monument of medieval scholarship, assessing its place both within the wider context of historical study, and also, more specifically, its continued contribution to that debate on the nature of Domesday Book with which scholars have been preoccupied for nearly one hundred years.
Synopsis
'Why still read it? Why should scholars consult it and undergraduates study it? The plan answer is that still after ninety years remains the greatest single book on English medieval history': thus J. C. Holt in his foreword to this new impression of one of the classic historical texts in any language. In three extended essays Maitland exploits the information in Domesday to analyse and reconstruct the society, law, government, economy and even something of the mental and imaginative world of early medieval England.
Synopsis
A Foreword by J. C. Holt demonstrates that many of the arguments that have dominated English medieval scholarship during the past ninety years stem directly from Maitland's original hypotheses and conclusions.
Table of Contents
Foreword; Preface; List of Abbreviations; Essay I. Domesday Book: 1. Plan of the survey; 2. The Serfs; 3. The Villeins; 4. The Sokemen; 5. Sake and Soke; 6. The manor; 7. Manor and vill; 8. The feudal superstructure; 9. The boroughs; Essay II. England Before the Conquest: 10. Book-land and the land-book; 11. Book-land and folk-land; 12. Sake and Soke; 13. Book-land and loan-land; 14. The growth of seignorial power; 15. The village community; Essay III. The Hide: 16. Measures and fields; 17. Domesday statistics; 18. Beyond domesday.