Rural Economy And Country Life In The Medieval West
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of economic history and social anthropology, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West stands as one of the most authoritative and penetrating studies of agrarian life in medieval Europe ever written. Georges Duby, one of France's most celebrated historians, presents a sweeping panorama of rural existence from the Carolingian era through the close of the Middle Ages, chronicling the rhythms of agricultural labour, the structures of manorial lordship, and the slow, transformative pressures of population growth and market exchange that reshaped the European countryside over centuries. Translated by Cynthia Postan, the work draws on an extraordinary range of documentary evidence — estate surveys, account rolls, and legal records — to reconstruct with vivid precision the world of peasants, lords, and the land that bound them together. Duby's scholarship is defined by a rare combination of rigorous empirical analysis and a luminous, almost narrative prose style that renders complex structural arguments accessible without sacrificing intellectual depth. This landmark text argues that the medieval rural economy was not a static, subsistence-bound world but a dynamic system subject to cyclical crises, demographic shocks, and remarkable episodes of agricultural innovation. A cornerstone of the Annales school of historiography, it remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the material foundations of medieval civilisation — and to grasp how the West's agrarian past cast a long shadow over the emergence of the modern world.
Author: Georges Duby
Format: Paperback
Genre: European history
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of economic history and social anthropology, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West stands as one of the most authoritative and penetrating studies of agrarian life in medieval Europe ever written. Georges Duby, one of France's most celebrated historians, presents a sweeping panorama of rural existence from the Carolingian era through the close of the Middle Ages, chronicling the rhythms of agricultural labour, the structures of manorial lordship, and the slow, transformative pressures of population growth and market exchange that reshaped the European countryside over centuries. Translated by Cynthia Postan, the work draws on an extraordinary range of documentary evidence — estate surveys, account rolls, and legal records — to reconstruct with vivid precision the world of peasants, lords, and the land that bound them together. Duby's scholarship is defined by a rare combination of rigorous empirical analysis and a luminous, almost narrative prose style that renders complex structural arguments accessible without sacrificing intellectual depth. This landmark text argues that the medieval rural economy was not a static, subsistence-bound world but a dynamic system subject to cyclical crises, demographic shocks, and remarkable episodes of agricultural innovation. A cornerstone of the Annales school of historiography, it remains essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the material foundations of medieval civilisation — and to grasp how the West's agrarian past cast a long shadow over the emergence of the modern world.