La Baja Edad Media

Fischer-Weltgeschichte #11

by Jacques Le Goff

Esta Historia universal SIGLO XXI, preparada y editada inicialmente por Fischer Verlag (Alemania), sigue un nuevo exponer la totalidad de los acontecimientos del mundo, dar todo su valor a la historia de los paises y pueblos de Asia, africa y America. Resalta la cultura y la economia como fuerzas que condicionan la historia. Saca a la luz el despertar de la humanidad a su propia conciencia. En la Historia universal SIGLO XXI han contribuido ochenta destacados especialistas de todo el mundo. Consta de 36 volumenes, cada uno de ellos independiente, y abarca desde la prehistoria hasta la actualidad.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Medieval

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

A prolific medievalist of international renown, Le Goff is sometimes considered the principal heir and continuator of the movement known as Annales School (École des Annales), founded by his intellectual mentor Marc Bloch. Le Goff succeeded Fernand Braudel in 1972 at the head of the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) and was succeeded by François Furet in 1977. Along with Pierre Nora, he was one of the leading figure of New History (Nouvelle histoire) in the 1970s.

Since then, he has dedicated himself to studies on the historical anthropology of Western Europe during medieval times. He is well-known for contesting the very name of "Middle Ages" and its chronology, highlighting achievements of this period and variations inside it, in particular by attracting attention to the Renaissance of the 12th century.

Reviews

[Ari Pérez · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is no doubt Le Goff is a great historian, however, he is not great storyteller. For a beginner reader in medieval history this will be daunting; Le Goff throws names and dates here and there without warning, he expects of you a great deal, be it king's names, pope's names, geography, even some german. The most difficult aspect for me is that he doesn't seem to adhere to a strict flow in every paragraph. For example he will start a chapter by talking about the government positions and how they related to the common people, what where their relationship and so forth, that's ok and dandy but slowly he starts inserting new names, say, a reference to a king of germany when he is talking about france, or he out of nowhere mentions a philosopher or a pope and suddenly, the main theme is lost in a wave of references that, although being in our best intereset, they come off as distracting. It is not uncommon to read in a page at least fifteen new dates and names in parenthesis: he starts talking about king A (insert example date here), then down the page add another person B (insert another date) and so on and on ad nauseam. I understand he wants to add context and important connections but the way he does so is very off putting. I'd recommend for this book to read the glossary at the end first, then search the names you don't know first in wikipedia and skim the page a bit so that you know who these people are (most of them are obscure by today's standards) and then proceed slowly page by page. However if you are well versed in the middle ages and know already most of the kings and popes, then this will be very interesting for you indeed.

[Pinco Panco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forse il miglior libro di Le Goff.