The Ties That Bound: Peasant Families in Medieval England
Richard H. Helmholz|Barbara A. Hanawalt
The history of great men and events is familiar to every schoolchild but facts everyday life in bygone eras remain a tantalizing mystery. Now Barbara Hanawalt has lifted curtain on the dark provided an intimate view that seems surprisingly yet at odds with what many experts have told us. For thesis this book biological needs served by family never changed way fourteenth-century peasants coped such problems as providing for both newborn aged, controlling premarital sex, alleviating harshness their material environment was not altogether unlike our twentieth-century solutions. Using variety medieval sources, notably over 3,000 coroners' inquests into accidental deaths, author emphasizes continuity nuclear from middle ages modern period explores reasons families being basic unit society economy. abounds fascinating detail, here citing incantation against rats, there noting hierarchy bread consumption (our supermarket could be seen ultimate fulfillment peasants' dream white bread), or games people played. makes abundantly clear we popularly think are really filled sunlight well shadows doings ordinary who must get business living find some joy it.About Author: A. Associate Professor History Indiana University Crime Conflict English Communities, 1300-1348.
The American Historical Review