Feudal Society [Hardcover]

Marc Bloch said that his goal in writing Feudal Societywas to go beyond the technical study a medievalist would typically write and dismantle a social structure. In this outstanding and monumental work, which has introduced generations of students and historians to the feudal period, Bloch treats feudalism as living, breathing force in Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century. At its heart lies a magisterial account of relations of lord and vassal, and the origins of the nature of the fief, brought to life through compelling accounts of the nobility, knighthood and chivalry, family relations, political and legal institutions, and the church. For Bloch history was a process of constant movement and evolution and he describes throughout the slow process by which feudal societies turned into what would become nation states. A tour de force of historical writing, Feudal Societyis essential reading for anyone interested in both Western Europes past and present.

With a new foreword by Geoffrey Koziol

Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition.  Introduction: Gerneral scope of the Enquiry.  Part One: The Environment - The Last Invasions.  i.  Moslems and Hungarians. ii.  The Northmen.  iii. Some Consequences.  Part Two: The Environment: Conditions of Life and Menatl Climate. iv. Material conditions and Economic Characteristics.  v. Modes of Feeling and Thought.  vi. The Folk Memory.  vii. The Intellectual Renaissance in the Second Feudal Age.  viii. The Foundations of Law.  Part Three: The Ties Between Man and Man: Kinship.  ix. The Solidarity of the Kindred Group.  x.Characher and Vicissitudes of The Tie of Kinship.  Part Four: The Ties between Man and Man: Vassalage and the Fief.  xi. Vassal Homage.  xiilS$