Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300–1200, ed. Kate Cooper and Conrad Leyser
Levi Roach
The volume under review originated in a conference held Manchester 2005 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of publication Max Gluckman’s influential ‘Peace Feud’. Though only one constituent chapters was originally presented at conference, contributors seek further themes discussed there, probing our understanding western (or ‘Latin’) Europe between Late Antiquity and central Middle Ages. As Conrad Leyser explains introduction, aims move discussion period beyond traditional fetishisation state authority (which is alternatively have collapsed or years straddling first millennium) on matters religion society. inspiration here comes from recent work late Roman Carolingian empires, which emphasises that neither monolith—and daily life generally dictated by social (rather than political) forces. Put playfully, as states, modern British political mantra, ‘Small State–Big Society’ (associated with David Cameron’s Conservatives), used explore 300 1200. In particular, aim use Church conflict alternative prisms through construct an developments over these years.
The English Historical Review