Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England [Paperback]

F. W. Maitland (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521349184 | ISBN-13: 978-0521349185 | Publication Date: January 29, 1988 | Edition: 2

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.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 2 edition (January 29, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521349184
• ISBN-13: 978-0521349185
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,034,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.0 out of 5 stars THE MESSAGE NOT THE MEDIUM, November 3, 2011

By 

Stephen Cooper (South Yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Domesday Book and Beyond: Three Essays in the Early History of England (Kindle Edition)

Frederick William Maitland was the father of English legal history. He was much admired in his own day and since. The late C.P.Wormald, author of 'The Making of English Law' (Blackwell, 1999) thought that his mastery of the subject was unmatched.

No-one can question Maitland's scholarship, though his style of writing is somewhat discursive and academic for the modern taste; but the main criticism of this book has to be that it is not about Domesday Book, despite the title. It is about Anglo-Saxon and early Anglo-Norman society, as revealed by Domesday Book. If you want to know about lords and villeins, boors and slaves, manors and boroughs, in great detail, this is the book for you; but if you want to know how and why Domesday was made, it is not.

There has been a long-running controversy about the Book. Was it a 'geld-book', as J.H. Round originally proposed, and as J.O.Prestwich argued in the 1960s? Or was a feudal register, as V.H. Galbraith first proposed in the 1940s? Or was it all a big mistake, little used for either purpose, as M. T. Clanchy argued in 'From Memory to Written Record'? There is now a voluminous literature on the subject; but Maitland was not really concerned with that. He was concerned with the message rather than the medium.

Stephen Cooper