Everyday Life in Medieval England [Paperback]

Christopher Dyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2003 | ISBN-10: 1852852011 | ISBN-13: 978-1852852016

Everyday Life in Medieval England captures the day-to-day experience of people in the middle ages - the houses and settlements in which they lived, the food they ate, their getting and spending - and their social relationships. The picture that emerges is of great variety, of constant change, of movement and of enterprise. Many people were downtrodden and miserably poor, but they struggled against their circumstances, resisting oppressive authorities, to build their own way of life and to improve their material conditions. The ordinary men and women of the middle ages appear throughout. Everyday life in Medieval England is an outstanding contribution to both national and local history.>

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an excellent book, not just in its detailed evidence but as an arresting survey of rural society, particularly at the sub-aristocratic level. It extends our knowledge of social history with new insights into how people lived, worked, ate, traded and related to one another." --Nicholas Orme.

Book Description

Everyday Life in Medieval England captures the day-to-day experience of people in the middle ages -- the houses and settlements in which they lived, the food they ate, their getting and spending -- and their social relationships. The picture that emerges is of great variety, of constant change, of movement and of enterprise. Many people were downtrodden and miserably poor, but they struggled against their circumstances, resisiting oppressive authorities, to build their own way of life and to improve their material conditions. The ordinary men and women of the middle ages appear throughout. Everyday Life in Medieval England is an outstanding contribution to both national and local history.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hambledon Continuum (February 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852852011
• ISBN-13: 978-1852852016
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,046,232 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Everyday Life in Medieval England, March 15, 2006

By 

The Reader (Woodridge, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Life in Medieval England (Paperback)

I found this book very informative and insightful. Christopher Dyer presents various aspects of everyday medieval life in England such as the villages and their decline, food, relationships between landowners and tenants and numerous other areas of life all based on facts and evidence drawn from archeological, topographical, and ancient documents as the sources for evidence. Trying to piece together a full view of this period of history based on scattered evidence can be a daunting task and I feel the approach Christopher takes works very well. Arranged in essay form, Christopher presents facts, he doesn't come across as someone trying to justify his point of view but wants to give the reader the truth based on the body of research information currently available (at the time of writing the book). For example if he is drawing a conclusion based on limited evidence he will state something to the effect that his conclusion is based on limited evidence and that more research needs to be done. By doing this I feel it shows he is more concerned about presenting evidence and truth and not forcing his opinion or painting his own vision of the medieval time period. This book does read a bit dry similar to academic text and for this reason I do agree with the previous post that it seems it was written more for academia than for the casual reader of history. Still, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the everyday life in medieval England.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Academic and dry, June 21, 2004

By 

J. Fuchs "jax76" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Everyday Life in Medieval England (Paperback)

Dyer's book consists of a series of essays on topics ranging from why villages declined in England in the middle ages to changes in diet to gardens, peasant buildings and the peasant's revolt of 1381. Yet unlike the tremendous breadth and depth of Paul B. Newman's far more engagingly written "Daily Life in the Middle Ages," Dyer's book seems to be as much about justification for why Dyer's view of life in the middle ages is accurate as about actual medieval life. This book is written more for the academic who cares deeply about sources for what is known than what is known itself, and the dry style and format (intro, argument, conclusion, and lots of footnotes, charts and tables) won't win many fans outside academia.

4.0 out of 5 stars Read in bites., October 3, 2011

By 

Been There Done That (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everyday Life in Medieval England (Paperback)

As the other reviewer stated, ELiME is typical Dyer, thoroughly sourced and thought provoking. Dry enough however to be read in portions over several weeks with your favorite libation.

As to the other reviewer who commented "...marketed to a general audience..."

What?

I think no one here is under the illusion any of Dyer's books will be recommended by Oprah's book club.

As for dismissing sourcing, you do a disservice to those who labour over such time intensive minutiae. I'd rather have period sources that you can see than contemporary supposition on 'facts' alluded to.