Britain In The Middle Ages

Product Description

As in ' Britain B.C.' & ' Britain A.D.' (also accompanied by Channel 4 series) eminent archaeologist Francis Pryor challenges familiar historical views of the Middle Ages by examining fresh evidence from the ground. The term ' Middle Ages' suggests a time between two other ages: a period when nothing much happened. In his radical reassessment Francis Pryor shows that this is very far from the truth & that the Middle Ages (approximately 800-1550) were actually the time when the modern world was born. This was when Britain moved from Late Antiquity into a world we can recognize as more or less familiar: roads & parishes became fixed; familiar institutions such as the church & local government came into being; industry became truly industrial; & international trade was now a routine process. Archaeology shows that the Middle Ages were far from static. Based on everyday often humdrum evidence it demonstrates that the later agricultural & industrial revolutions were not that unexpected given what we now know of the later medieval period. Similarly the explosion of British maritime power in the late 1700s had roots in the 15th century. The book stresses continuous development at the expense of 'revolution' though the Black Death (1348) which killed a third of the population did have a profound effect in loosening the grip of the feudal system. Labour became scarce & workers gained power; land became more available & the move to modern farming began. The Middle Ages can now be seen in a fresh light as an era of great inventiveness as the author examines such topics as 'upward mobility'; the power of the Church; the role of the Guilds as precursors of trade unions; the transport infrastructure of roads bridges & shipbuilders; & the increase in iron production.