Description
Book SynopsisLooking beyond the notion of a 'Feudal Revolution' in Europe between 800 and 1100, this book reveals that the profound socio-economic changes that took place in the transition from Carolingian to post-Carolingian Europe were a continuation of processes unleashed by Carolingian reform, rather than a result of political failure.
Trade Review'The case is made for specialists, but the depth and subtlety of its analysis give it much wider relevance. West's argument … is scrupulously conducted … it bears forcefully on many central issues, including the nature of feudalism and the dynamics of papal reform. Its reconciliation of the tension between continuity and change which is at the centre of this debate, as of so many others, shows how much has been lost in the hardening of a division between the early and the central Middle Ages. It evokes an even larger debate by implying that the European future was built not on the achievements of the Romans but on starting again at a level of society which they had failed to penetrate.' The Times Literary Supplement
'… an important book.' Simon John, English Historical Review
'The book is a tour de force which in many ways does succeed in reframing the debate. It is exemplary in its careful attention to the words of the documents and their contexts, in the sheer variety of sources used, as well as in its concern to look at both sides of the Franco-Imperial divide. … This book is essential for anyone working on social change in western Europe in this period.' Theo Riches, Early Medieval Europe
Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. The Parameters of Carolingian Society: 1. Institutional integration; 2. Networks of inequality; 3. Carolingian co-ordinations; Part II. The Long Tenth Century, c.880–c.1030: 4. The ebbing of royal power; 5. New hierarchies; Part III. The Exercise of Authority through Property Rights, c.1030–1130: 6. The banality of power; 7. Fiefs, homage, and the 'investiture quarrel'; 8. Upper Lotharingia and Champagne around 1100: unity and diversity; Conclusion; Bibliography.
