The Shape of Medieval History

by William J. Brandt

Medieval studies

Genres: European History

173 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alternately enlightening and mystifying study of medieval modes of perception based on period chronicles. Brandt's assertions about how medieval people perceived their world, especially nature and man, are sometimes compelling and sometimes utterly opaque. His textual analysis is problematic in that he generally does a poor job in showing the reader precisely how he is reading the passages in question to arrive at his hypotheses. He also seems to take something written in a chronicle as one-to-one evidence for how medieval folks actually led their lives, confusing literature for reality and, for example, confusing how a male chronicler describes a woman's life with a medieval woman's life. For all of that, there are some really interesting points in this short volume. Worth a read if you're really really into medieval history.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will certainly need to reread, but for now, two sentences will shape my reading as a historian.

“The ultimate aim of the intellectual historian, I suppose, is to map such a hierarchy of beliefs as they are ordered at a particular time.”

“One cannot, of course, posit some sort of common human sympathy as innate in mankind and describe as pathological all behavior that does not manifest it”