Hardcover. London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 498 pages, b&w illustrations. I: The Growth of Ties of Independence. II: Social Classes and Political Organization. Translated from the French by L. A. Manyon. Foreword by M. M. Postan. In this outstanding and magisterial work, which has introduced generations of readers to the feudal period, Marc Bloch treats feudalism as living, breathing force in Western Europe from the ninth to the thirteenth century. Bloch said that his goal in writing Feudal Society was to go beyond the technical study a medievalist would typically write and 'dismantle a social structure.' For Bloch, history is a process of constant evolution and he brilliantly describes the slow process by which feudal societies turned into what would become nation states. A tour de force of historical writing, Feudal Society is essential reading for anyone interested in both Western Europe's past and present. Mild soil to covers otherwise a clean, tight copy.
