Synopses & Reviews
"Few have set themselves to the formidable task of reconstructing and analyzing a whole human environment; fewer still have succeeded. Bloch dared to do this and was successful; therein lies the enduring achievement of Feudal Society."and#8212;Charles Garside,
Yale ReviewAbout the Author
Marc Bloch was born at Lyons in 1886. He was for many years professor of medieval history at the University of Strasbourg before being called in 1936 to the Chair of Economic History at the Sorbonne. In 1939, he volunteered for active service; he was already fifty-three. After the fall of France in 1940, he went to the south, where he taught at the universities of Clermont Ferrand and Montpellier. When the south, too, was occupied, he joined the Resistance but was caught by the Gestapo, tortured, and finally shot in June 1944.
Table of Contents
Foreword by M. M. Postan
Introduction: General Scope of the Inquiry
Volume 1 - The Growth of Ties of Dependence
Part I - The Environment: The Last Invasions
I. Moslems and Hungarians
1. Europe Invaded and Besieged
2. The Moslems
3. The Hungarian Assault
4. End of the Hungarian Invasions
II. The Northmen
1. General Character of the Scandinavian Invasions
2. From Raid to Settlement
3. The Scandinavian Settlements: England
4. The Scandinavian Settlements: France
5. The Conversion of the North
6. In Search of Causes
III. Some Consequences and Some Lessons of the Invasions
1. Disorder
2. The Human Contribution: the Evidence of Language and Names
3. The Human Contribution: the Evidence of Law and Social Structure
4. The Human Contribution: Problems of Origin
5. Lessons
Part II - The Environment: Conditions of Life and Mental Climate
IV. Material Conditions and Economic Characteristics
1. The Two Ages of Feudalism
2. The First Feudal