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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Back to the Fundamentals, July 14, 2004
One of the many documents that we honor without paying much importance to what it really was in its time is the Magna Carta. There is a meadow at Runnymede, near Windsor in England, where in 1215 King John was forced to sign the document, and among other memorials there now is a little temple placed by the American Bar Association. The American Founding Fathers reverenced the document, and indeed parts of the Constitution may be easily traced to sentences within the Magna Carta. But the Magna Carta in its time was a bust; it did not bring peace between King John and the barons suing for their share of liberty and was soon trashed in civil war. _1215: The Year of Magna Carta_ (Touchstone) by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham puts the document in context. We are right to hold it in reverence, but the authors make clear that the barons were looking after their property rights easily as much as the abstract values of freedom which have inspired patriots through history, and that the document enabled serfdom rather than actual freedom. The surprising part about this book is that the Magna Carta does not really show up until the final chapters. The title is correct; the book is largely about the year and how people in England lived at that time. There are chapters on schools, families, tournaments, trials, the church, and other important aspects of life under King John, with mere hints in each about how the Magna Carta might have affected them. The details of life in that year come thick throughout the main part of the book. Astrology was promoted, but some monks and teachers thought it was bunk. People took part in religious rituals, but one prior wrote, "There are many people who do not believe that God exists" and said the universe was ruled by chance, not providence. No one knows how many the "many people" were. There were English colonies as far away as Alexandria. Summers were warmer by one centigrade degree than they are now, with milder winters and lower rainfall. If you were right handed, you would write with a quill from the left wing of a goose (and vice versa) so that the feather would curve outwards when you wrote. Wolves roamed the forests which covered nearly a third of England. Men wore underwear but women didn't. Hay was used for toilet paper. Chess was played with enthusiasm but with simpler rules than now. Adulterers would be whipped naked through the streets. This is a lively history, and fun to read. The book concludes with the actual signing of the Magna Carta itself and its effects. The rebellion by the barons in 1215 was quite different from the many rebellions against previous kings. Those involved fighting to restore a particular monarch to the throne. The barons had no such champion; the focus of their revolt was simply a program of reform. The document itself consists of 63 clauses, the first ten of which (and many of the subsequent ones) have only to do with maintaining the barons' property rights. There are ringing, lofty expressions of principle, but they are late in the charter, and while they are what we revere it for, they were evidently not uppermost on the minds of the barons. This does not matter, really; "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice" and that no one will have action against him "... except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land" were important principles then and now. The Magna Carta was intended as a peace treaty, but John was eager to wiggle out of it any way he could, and was helped by the Pope, who declared the Magna Carta null and void. The all-out civil war that followed was capped by John's death a year later from dysentery. The Magna Carta was reissued, as it was again in 1225, and it is the 1225 text that entered the statute books. It was this version that bad kings had to reaffirm; public cries after royal infringements, for instance, forced Edward I to confirm the charter in 1297. This spirited introduction to thirteenth century history shows that the Magna Carta thus may be more eternally important not as a foundation for specific rights, but as the primal symbol for struggle against tyranny.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I enjoyed every page!, November 8, 2004
On June 15, 1215, facing a rebellion of his barons, King John of England (yep, the villain of the Robin Hood movie, but that's a different subject) was forced to the conference table, and signed an historic charter - Magna Carta. Widely believed to be the very root of Anglo-Saxon, and later World, democracy, Magna Carta is venerated by many. But, what do you really know about Magna Carta?
In this fascinating book, the authors look at England in 1215, and give the reader an wonderfully in-depth understanding of what life was like at that time, what was going on in England and the rest of Europe, and finally gives the story of Magna Carta, the myths that have grown up around it and even its wording.
Every once in a while a book comes along that surprises me with its excellence - well, this is one of those books! The authors do an excellent job of giving the reader a feel for life in the thirteenth century, really bringing it to life. I enjoyed every page of this fascinating history book, and highly recommend it to everyone who enjoys reading a good book!
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History Class, August 24, 2005
I am a high school student going into Sophomore year, and 1215: The Year of Magna Carta was one of my summer reading books. At first I thought it wouldn't be very interesting because from what I had heard it was basically a history textbook in paperback. However, when I read it, I found that the detail makes it so hard to look away from the page! This book is really well written, and no matter what age you are, you'll enjoy it.
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