The Serf, the Knight, and the Historian - Softcover

Barthélemy, Dominique

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801475600 ISBN 13: 9780801475603

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2009

Synopsis

"The term 'feudal society' is a caricature. It was invented by nineteenth-century historians to capture a particular period in French history, that of the retreat of monarchy (and thus of state authority) and the supposed tyranny of fiefdoms. It had its uses. As caricatures go, it was no worse than many others. But it was both reductionist and unbalanced. Among other things, it reduced society to bonds of dependency that were ritualized and personalized, and it imagined a scenario of quasi-independent castles, each with its own knights, existing in a state of continuous warfare with one another. It largely ignored other links and networks, and it overlooked the fact that warfare between neighbors was intermittent and limited. Meanwhile, in the real world, apart from such conflict-though sometimes through it-social construction was going on."―Dominique Barthélemy

In a collection of combative essays, updated for this new translation, Dominique Barthélemy presents a sharply revisionist account of the history of France around the Year 1000. He challenges the view, developed in the enormously influential writings of Georges Duby and others, that France underwent a kind of revolution at the millennium that transformed it into the classic feudal, or seigneurial, society we know from a host of college textbooks. Barthélemy advances his own original views, positing a much more complex and incremental evolution, and maintaining that the post-Carolingian world was more dynamic and creative than Duby and his successors have held.

Barthélemy's view requires historians to radically rethink their notions of the history of serfs and nobles, of the so-called Peace of God movements, of the influence (indeed, even the existence) of millenarian fears, and of the nature of the legal system in early medieval Europe. Moreover, it challenges the utility of the term "feudalism" itself, and of our notion that Europe of the High Middle Ages was a "feudal society." Originally published in French under the title "La mutation de l'an mil a-t-elle eu lieu?," this book has generated loud debate on both sides of the Atlantic. In addition to having been revised throughout, the Cornell edition contains a new preface, concluding chapter, and bibliography.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"The Serf, the Knight, and the Historian is an outstanding translation of Dominique Barthélemy's brilliantly argued attack on the scholarly consensus of the last half century that a so-called 'feudal revolution' or 'feudal mutation' radically transformed France and other regions of Europe in around 1000. Two new essays written for this volume show how he and other critics of 'mutationnisme" in Europe and the U.S. demolished this paradigm and established a new one. Barthélemy fought 'the feudal revolution'--and won."--Stephen D. White, Emory University

"Dominique Barthélemy is in my book the most interesting historian of the middle ages writing today in France, or possibly anywhere else. He combines the best of the French intellectual tradition with a deep understanding of what Anglophone anthropology and legal studies have to offer. His persuasive pen draws readers to approve the unexpected beauties his imagination and broad learning constantly elicits from his texts.The fertility of his mind seems unceasing. In this book, he transcends controversy over the supposed 'Mutation'of the year 1000, to convincingly reshape a gradual European social change over the medieval centuries around the ever-changing notions of serf and knight. This English version is more than translation of La mutation de l'an mil a-t-elle eu lieu? (1997); with subtle rethinking and added chapters, it constitutes a significantly improved edition. This is a book to enjoy, but also to engage with. It will stand alongside Marc Bloch's Feudal Society and the oeuvre of Georges Duby, both as an exemplary demonstration of historical imagination and the evocation of medieval society for the twenty-first century."--Paul Hyams, Cornell University

About the Author

Dominique Barthélemy is Professor of Medieval History at Paris-IV (Sorbonne) and director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des hautes études. Among his other works is Chevaliers et miracles: la violence et le sacré dans la société. Graham Robert Edwards is the translator of Order and Exclusion: Cluny and Christendom Face Heresy, Judaism, and Islam (1000-1150) by Dominique Iogna-Prat, also from Cornell.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0801475600
• ISBN 13: 9780801475603
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368