Danny Danziger

This book was a delightful surprise--a melodically written ode to the life of the everyman and everywoman of England in the year 1000. I was beguiled by Danziger and Lacey's use of illustrations from an ancient calendar (the oldest surviving one in English history) created at the Canterbury cathedral in 1020 -- the Julius Work Calendar -- to highlight the variegated elements of life for ordinary people at the turn of the first millennium after Christ. Each chapter regales with tales of show more planting, sowing, and harvest time, private lives and public controversies, battles, and family life, inspired by the featured illustration for each month of the calendar.

There is a certain magic in being able to portray quotidian history such that it shrinks the generations between reader and subject. I found this to be the case here. My key takeaway is that these people were smarter, more innovative, heartier, and more capable than conventional wisdom would suggest. I imagine that sitting down to eat with some of them would be a fascinating and inspiring experience, for the hardships they had to endure in that epoch were enormous compared with the creature comforts we enjoy today. An informative, charming, insightful, quick read. I recommend it. show less

This is perfectly readable, yet full of interesting snippets and some analysis. It intends to describe what England was like in 1215, when Magna Carta was signed. It does this in a series of themed chapters, but it also, within these chapters, takes clauses of the charter and explains why they were in there, why they were important and what they were trying to achieve. So the chapter looking at the forest and laws associated with forest gets into poaching deer, outlaws, what makes a forest show more and how the laws of the forest were different from outside it. That puts into context the clauses relating to forested areas, and why they were important at the time. It also makes quite clear that the interpretation we may have of Magna Carta now is not what was in the minds of its authors. The clauses concerning right to justice has a certain interpretation now, but it's tucked away in the final quarter of the charter and didn't mean then what it has since been taken to mean. Context is everything. It was a product of its time, but it was sufficiently flexible that it was able to be reissued (with alterations) many times in the next few centuries as the circumstances changed. As written, it contains the seeds of its own downfall, but enough of it was valuable that it was successively re-issued again. The text of the charter is included at the back, and it certainly makes interesting reading in light of the previous book, it changes the way you look at it.
This is an interesting, readable account of this period of the middle ages. show less

This is a very readable, engaging book about what life in England was like, and how that led to the negotiation of the Magna Carta. Well researched and well presented, this is a popular history that provides insights on how the Magna Carta came to be, and its lasting impact on western democracies.

If I were born in England in the year 1000 I would be a farmer because that was the default occupation in those days. With famines ever lurking, food was the issue for most people. And if I had no land to farm I would have to submit myself to a landowner, voluntarily, to be a slave. Because the only alternative was starvation. Mine would be a short life of hard labor and exposure, for others. I would try to keep warm in winter by burning wood or dung, if I could get them. And I might have show more fleas or worms.

I would not be able to read or write, but could communicate orally in English, such as it was then. I could not afford to own even one book. I would have only one name, no surname. I would live by saints’ days and the church calendar, like the neighbors. I would know nothing of the world beyond a few miles of my home, but would live in fear of invasion by armies of thugs. And I would have to behave myself, lest I be mistaken for the anti-Christ who was expected to arrive with the millennium. Typically, there was a gallows on the edge of town. Such was England, or Engla-lond, in the year 1000.

This book is a fascinating glimpse into the past, derived from contemporary documents such as the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the Julius Work Calendar, monastic rules, wills and legal documents, even bawdy jokes and poems. Plus archaeological findings. It makes me appreciate the comforts I have now, but it was not all bad then. Their world was quiet, unpolluted, and not overpopulated. show less