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Feudal Society #1-2
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Feudal Society discusses the economic and social conditions in which feudalism developed providing a deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe
504 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1939
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1118 people want to read
About the author
Marc Bloch
58 books179 followersMarc Léopold Benjamin Bloch (6 July 1886 in Lyon – 16 June 1944 in Saint-Didier-de-Formans) was a medieval historian, University Professor and French Army officer. Bloch was a founder of the Annales School, best known for his pioneering studies French Rural History and Feudal Society and his posthumously-published unfinished meditation on the writing of history, The Historian's Craft. He was captured and shot by the Gestapo during the German occupation of France for his work in the French Resistance.
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February 3, 2020
«A sociedade feudal» não é livro que se recomende a quem queira uma introdução a esse período histórico que conhecemos como Idade Média. Primeiro porque o título anguloso é simultaneamente fechado. Explico-me melhor: grande parte do livro trata efectivamente das relações feudo-vassálicas, das suas motivações, consequências e variações, pese embora a ampla contextualização e introdução de tópicos convergentes. É, portanto, um livro de síntese, sim, mas sobretudo de tese. Segundo, porque mesmo as explanações mais gerais têm como foco as regiões da Europa central e os países anglo-saxónicos. Não culpemos Bloch, cuja erudição é por demais evidenciada em todo o livro, mas de facto para leitores de um país como o nosso poderá sempre ficar a ideia de que aqui nas Espanhas não se passava nada; que estávamos à margem, já nessa altura. Não foi nada disso, como sabemos, mas essas contas não são para aqui chamadas. De resto, toda e qualquer investigação histórica tem balizas cronológicas e espaciais (mesmo os autores da chamada «Big History», hoje muito em voga). Não posso dizer que me deliciei com todas as páginas, muitas foram penosas, mas o cômputo geral é mais que positivo. Bloch é ainda hoje um dos grandes mestres de qualquer medievalista.
August 20, 2017
This review was first published on my blog here.
The foreword to this Routledge Classics edition, by Geoffrey Kozol, starts by asking, "Why read a work of history written over seventy years ago?" Clearly, after such a long time, a scholarly work of this kind no longer represents current knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, any more than earlier historical classics like Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire or Carlyle's history of The French Revolution do.
Each of the books mentioned, including this one, has good reasons why you might want to read them. Three in particular are common to all of them: they have all been influential in one way or another; they are all quite general overviews of topics often treated on a smaller scale by specialists; and they are all of high literary quality.
In Feudal Society Bloch attempts a study of several centuries of Western European social history, analysing the genesis, flowering and eventual modification into something else of the culture known as "feudal" - that is, based around vassal/overlord relationships, tied to land grants (fees, the origin of the word feudal). Given the fragmentary state of the documentary record, especially in the early years going beyond the major chronicles to understand the society is hard work, but in this book Bloch uses a huge array of small scale records (mainly legal documents) to produce as full a picture as possible.
To research this way is now far more common, but the scale of the project in this case means that it is still an impressive synthesis - indeed, it would be fair to say that Bloch is phenomenally successful. Naive historical accounts, in any era, tend to paint a picture of society as though it remains the same over long periods of time, so that Roman customs and fashion appear to be constant from the late Republic to the end of the Empire, for instance, or (more relevantly) as though feudalism as an organising principle sprang into being in the tenth century and then was replaced during the fifteenth, and was the same in France, Germany, Italy and even England after the cataclysm of 1066. It is clear that these pictures are nonsensical, and Bloch of course gives a far more nuanced and subtle description of a culture which was never uniform, and which developed significantly over time. Bloch identifies the economic downturn of the late Carolingian era and the disruptions to social order and centralised power at the time of the Magyar and Viking raids as causes of the adoption of personal vassalage and serf labour in the manorial system, as a development of Germanic and Roman customs. The argument is convincing, but I would like to read a modern equivalent of this book to see how today's scholarship has modified this viewpoint. That is, of course, if there is a modern historian with such detailed and widespread knowledge and understanding.
At the end of Feudal Society, Bloch suggests that one area which could the focus of further study is how European feudalism is related to other historical cultures which have been described using the word. He discusses in particular the Japan of the samurai, and describes a number of significant differences from medieval western Europe. Although I don't think it's all that clear from the text, I'm sure that Bloch was perfectly well aware that the use of the "feudal" label for Japan is based on superficial likenesses: the real interest is to look at how and why the similarities and differences on opposite sides of the globe.
Overall, Feudal Society is an inspiring classic from "the father of scientific history", and, like Carlyle and Gibbon, deserves to be read and remembered.
The foreword to this Routledge Classics edition, by Geoffrey Kozol, starts by asking, "Why read a work of history written over seventy years ago?" Clearly, after such a long time, a scholarly work of this kind no longer represents current knowledge and understanding of the subject matter, any more than earlier historical classics like Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire or Carlyle's history of The French Revolution do.
Each of the books mentioned, including this one, has good reasons why you might want to read them. Three in particular are common to all of them: they have all been influential in one way or another; they are all quite general overviews of topics often treated on a smaller scale by specialists; and they are all of high literary quality.
In Feudal Society Bloch attempts a study of several centuries of Western European social history, analysing the genesis, flowering and eventual modification into something else of the culture known as "feudal" - that is, based around vassal/overlord relationships, tied to land grants (fees, the origin of the word feudal). Given the fragmentary state of the documentary record, especially in the early years going beyond the major chronicles to understand the society is hard work, but in this book Bloch uses a huge array of small scale records (mainly legal documents) to produce as full a picture as possible.
To research this way is now far more common, but the scale of the project in this case means that it is still an impressive synthesis - indeed, it would be fair to say that Bloch is phenomenally successful. Naive historical accounts, in any era, tend to paint a picture of society as though it remains the same over long periods of time, so that Roman customs and fashion appear to be constant from the late Republic to the end of the Empire, for instance, or (more relevantly) as though feudalism as an organising principle sprang into being in the tenth century and then was replaced during the fifteenth, and was the same in France, Germany, Italy and even England after the cataclysm of 1066. It is clear that these pictures are nonsensical, and Bloch of course gives a far more nuanced and subtle description of a culture which was never uniform, and which developed significantly over time. Bloch identifies the economic downturn of the late Carolingian era and the disruptions to social order and centralised power at the time of the Magyar and Viking raids as causes of the adoption of personal vassalage and serf labour in the manorial system, as a development of Germanic and Roman customs. The argument is convincing, but I would like to read a modern equivalent of this book to see how today's scholarship has modified this viewpoint. That is, of course, if there is a modern historian with such detailed and widespread knowledge and understanding.
At the end of Feudal Society, Bloch suggests that one area which could the focus of further study is how European feudalism is related to other historical cultures which have been described using the word. He discusses in particular the Japan of the samurai, and describes a number of significant differences from medieval western Europe. Although I don't think it's all that clear from the text, I'm sure that Bloch was perfectly well aware that the use of the "feudal" label for Japan is based on superficial likenesses: the real interest is to look at how and why the similarities and differences on opposite sides of the globe.
Overall, Feudal Society is an inspiring classic from "the father of scientific history", and, like Carlyle and Gibbon, deserves to be read and remembered.
March 7, 2021
This modern reissue of Marc Bloch's great study of feudal society in medieval Europe, first published in France in the fatal year of 1940, and in English in 1961, represents one of the founding texts of medieval social history, which, although, as the author intended, superseded by more accurate and detailed studies, stilll after over eighty years provides a valuable introduction to understanding how medieval communities functioned within an interconnected and increasingly hierarchical structure based upon land and service.
The period Bloch identifies as the feudal age runs from the late ninth century and the break up of the Carolingian empire for around four centuries until the emergence of the national monarchies from the fourteenth century onwards, and is divided by the author into two distinct feudal ages, the first, c,900-1100, being based upon vassalage and personal service, and the second, c,1100-1300, as the fief as the basis of political society developed, based upon land and money rents and the manorial system. Today, such a distinction is no longer accepted, with the importance of land as the basis of service in the earlier era and the continuance of labour service into the fourteenth century better understood, however, Bloch's over-rigid approach, if, perhaps, a product of contemporary Marxist socio-economic classifications, is still useful in delineating differences in feudal relations, if not in identifying a chronological progression, while still providing an explanatory framework for how occupation of land in return for homage and service evolved into land as property in the early modern period.
So, Bloch divides the feudal period into his two parts, the first focused upon human bonds between lord and vassal, and the second upon relations based upon land and social class, and, accordingly, he divides the book into two volumes to examine these differing feudal structures in turn. The book begins with a now rejected explanation for the emergence of feudalism based upon the invasions of western Europe by the Northmen and the Hungarians, a hypothesis in tune with the theories of Henri Pirenne current at the time of writing, and while not seeking an overtly causal explanation for feudalism, Bloch explains how the system developed at a time when weak monarchies and growing anarchy led men to place themselves and their land, willingly and unwillingly, under the lordship of more powerful men for protection - commendation - who in turn took them into their protection in exchange for them rendering service in their household and as soldiers. However, this somewhat ignores that such protective relations had already emerged in post-antiquity and that the Germanic invaders, the Franks and the Saxons, had adapted their pre-existing practices based upon tribe and kinship to western settlement, the manorial system, and the remnants of Roman socio-political and administrative structures, so that the Merovingian and Carolingian states were themselves more feudal than Bloch suggests.
It is on the Frankish lands that constituted the Carolingian empire that Bloch focuses, regarding these as the breeding ground for the feudal system as the political structure broke down in the late ninth century, and this is both a strength and a weakness. The strength is that this allows for a comparative approach to how what Bloch calls the first feudal age develops in West and East Francia and how these different but related forms help to explain how the kingdom of France and the German empire developed as two separate polities both claiming the same Carolingian heritage. However, the weakness is that this tends to diminish the importance of non-Frankish feudal experiences in Saxony, the Lombard kingdom of Italy, and most pertinently, the particularity of Normandy and of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England, whose differing frameworks of feudal land tenure and service are undervalued except in so far as they relate to similarities in France and Riparian Germany. Yet, this is a minor quibble in a book written by a French historian at a time when the historiography of medieval England was still dominated by political and administrative analysis, and when it was this book which was to stimulate much later work in medieval English social history. Simply, it is harsh to criticise Bloch for failing to investigate English society, when the contemporary published primary and secondary material was still so limited.
It is from his deep knowledge of France that Bloch builds his study of chivalry and knighthood, and explains how from knighthood a nobility came into being atop the feudal hierarchy, but which had to co-exist within the increasingly powerful structure of monarchies whose administrative and judicial competence was developing outside of but alongside the feudal land structure. However, as Bloch also shows, while knighthood and the culture of military service as the prerequisite for social status saw the nobility develop into a separate legal class in France, in England, while nobility conferred social status, the more centralised governmental system, the common law and its mostly equal treatment of all freemen, and the increasingly sophisticated means of land holding and transfer resulting from subinfeudation meant such a caste did not develop. As this study ends at the beginning of the fourteenth century, there is no examination of what has come to be called 'bastard feudalism', but Bloch does remark how livery and maintenance in England came to pervert the social system based upon land and military service and led to a relative reversion to social ties based upon personal relations separate from the direct infeudation of retainers and centred upon the noble household, the affinity, and 'good lordship'. Accepting Bloch's analysis, one might ask just how feudal was 'bastard feudalism', and just how far the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries can be regarded as proto-capitalist rather than feudal? What is for sure is that feudal is not a synonym for medieval, with the feudal system being, according to Bloch, a discrete social and economic system based upon fealty and land which extended in western Europe from c.900 to c.1300 within the greater medieval period between antiquity/late antiquity and early modern capitalism.
This work remains a valuable contribution to understanding feudal Europe, but it does have weakness, implicitly accepting the theory that feudalism was a precursor to capitalism without recognising the importance of money and material exchange in feudal societies, and inadequately incorporating the experiences of not only England, but also Scandinavia and the Italian city states into an analysis of feudal society that is focused primarily upon the areas with Carolingian Francia that came to be France and western Germany. Nonetheless, this remains a remarkable contribution to historical scholarship, a worthy memorial to a great historian and one of the founders of medieval social history, and an intelligent and articulate exposition of how during the central middle ages social ties based upon personal relations came to be succeeded by a social structure based upon the possession and ownership of land, and of the effects upon individuals and societies of the wealth, power, and status these conferred.
The period Bloch identifies as the feudal age runs from the late ninth century and the break up of the Carolingian empire for around four centuries until the emergence of the national monarchies from the fourteenth century onwards, and is divided by the author into two distinct feudal ages, the first, c,900-1100, being based upon vassalage and personal service, and the second, c,1100-1300, as the fief as the basis of political society developed, based upon land and money rents and the manorial system. Today, such a distinction is no longer accepted, with the importance of land as the basis of service in the earlier era and the continuance of labour service into the fourteenth century better understood, however, Bloch's over-rigid approach, if, perhaps, a product of contemporary Marxist socio-economic classifications, is still useful in delineating differences in feudal relations, if not in identifying a chronological progression, while still providing an explanatory framework for how occupation of land in return for homage and service evolved into land as property in the early modern period.
So, Bloch divides the feudal period into his two parts, the first focused upon human bonds between lord and vassal, and the second upon relations based upon land and social class, and, accordingly, he divides the book into two volumes to examine these differing feudal structures in turn. The book begins with a now rejected explanation for the emergence of feudalism based upon the invasions of western Europe by the Northmen and the Hungarians, a hypothesis in tune with the theories of Henri Pirenne current at the time of writing, and while not seeking an overtly causal explanation for feudalism, Bloch explains how the system developed at a time when weak monarchies and growing anarchy led men to place themselves and their land, willingly and unwillingly, under the lordship of more powerful men for protection - commendation - who in turn took them into their protection in exchange for them rendering service in their household and as soldiers. However, this somewhat ignores that such protective relations had already emerged in post-antiquity and that the Germanic invaders, the Franks and the Saxons, had adapted their pre-existing practices based upon tribe and kinship to western settlement, the manorial system, and the remnants of Roman socio-political and administrative structures, so that the Merovingian and Carolingian states were themselves more feudal than Bloch suggests.
It is on the Frankish lands that constituted the Carolingian empire that Bloch focuses, regarding these as the breeding ground for the feudal system as the political structure broke down in the late ninth century, and this is both a strength and a weakness. The strength is that this allows for a comparative approach to how what Bloch calls the first feudal age develops in West and East Francia and how these different but related forms help to explain how the kingdom of France and the German empire developed as two separate polities both claiming the same Carolingian heritage. However, the weakness is that this tends to diminish the importance of non-Frankish feudal experiences in Saxony, the Lombard kingdom of Italy, and most pertinently, the particularity of Normandy and of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England, whose differing frameworks of feudal land tenure and service are undervalued except in so far as they relate to similarities in France and Riparian Germany. Yet, this is a minor quibble in a book written by a French historian at a time when the historiography of medieval England was still dominated by political and administrative analysis, and when it was this book which was to stimulate much later work in medieval English social history. Simply, it is harsh to criticise Bloch for failing to investigate English society, when the contemporary published primary and secondary material was still so limited.
It is from his deep knowledge of France that Bloch builds his study of chivalry and knighthood, and explains how from knighthood a nobility came into being atop the feudal hierarchy, but which had to co-exist within the increasingly powerful structure of monarchies whose administrative and judicial competence was developing outside of but alongside the feudal land structure. However, as Bloch also shows, while knighthood and the culture of military service as the prerequisite for social status saw the nobility develop into a separate legal class in France, in England, while nobility conferred social status, the more centralised governmental system, the common law and its mostly equal treatment of all freemen, and the increasingly sophisticated means of land holding and transfer resulting from subinfeudation meant such a caste did not develop. As this study ends at the beginning of the fourteenth century, there is no examination of what has come to be called 'bastard feudalism', but Bloch does remark how livery and maintenance in England came to pervert the social system based upon land and military service and led to a relative reversion to social ties based upon personal relations separate from the direct infeudation of retainers and centred upon the noble household, the affinity, and 'good lordship'. Accepting Bloch's analysis, one might ask just how feudal was 'bastard feudalism', and just how far the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries can be regarded as proto-capitalist rather than feudal? What is for sure is that feudal is not a synonym for medieval, with the feudal system being, according to Bloch, a discrete social and economic system based upon fealty and land which extended in western Europe from c.900 to c.1300 within the greater medieval period between antiquity/late antiquity and early modern capitalism.
This work remains a valuable contribution to understanding feudal Europe, but it does have weakness, implicitly accepting the theory that feudalism was a precursor to capitalism without recognising the importance of money and material exchange in feudal societies, and inadequately incorporating the experiences of not only England, but also Scandinavia and the Italian city states into an analysis of feudal society that is focused primarily upon the areas with Carolingian Francia that came to be France and western Germany. Nonetheless, this remains a remarkable contribution to historical scholarship, a worthy memorial to a great historian and one of the founders of medieval social history, and an intelligent and articulate exposition of how during the central middle ages social ties based upon personal relations came to be succeeded by a social structure based upon the possession and ownership of land, and of the effects upon individuals and societies of the wealth, power, and status these conferred.
April 8, 2020
C'est peut-être parce que je viens de terminer La Famille en Europe de Jack Goody mais j'ai été surpris que Marc Bloch mentionne aussi peu le rôle du christianisme dans l'affaiblissement des liens de parenté qui selon lui favorisa le développement du féodalisme.
Ce serait ma seule remarque sur ce magnifique essai que j'ai lu à la suite des conseils de lecture donnés par Jon Elster dans Nuts and Bolts.
Je retiens enfin la belle idée de Bloch en conclusion: l'Europe tient de la féodalité l'idée que le pouvoir est une convention entre deux personnes, que l'une peut éventuellement rompre en cas de manquement de l'autre.
Les dernières lignes de ce beau livre: "Dans cet accent, mis sur l'idée d'une convention, capable de lier les pouvoirs, réside l'originalité de notre féodalité à nous. Par là, si dur aux petits qu'ait été ce régime, il a véritablement légué à nos civilisations quelque chose dont nous souhaitons vivre encore."
Ce serait ma seule remarque sur ce magnifique essai que j'ai lu à la suite des conseils de lecture donnés par Jon Elster dans Nuts and Bolts.
Je retiens enfin la belle idée de Bloch en conclusion: l'Europe tient de la féodalité l'idée que le pouvoir est une convention entre deux personnes, que l'une peut éventuellement rompre en cas de manquement de l'autre.
Les dernières lignes de ce beau livre: "Dans cet accent, mis sur l'idée d'une convention, capable de lier les pouvoirs, réside l'originalité de notre féodalité à nous. Par là, si dur aux petits qu'ait été ce régime, il a véritablement légué à nos civilisations quelque chose dont nous souhaitons vivre encore."
February 3, 2013
I used excerpts from Bloch's magisterial work for several years in teaching the history of historical writing, but I had never read the whole book. Now that I have, I more fully recognize its significance in the development of historical methodology, as Bloch uses techniques from sociology and anthropology to more fully understand feudal society. But the resulting book is not an easy read. As a historian of the United States I have done little reading on the Medieval period of European history and thus have little background on the subject. Furthermore, Bloch's work is relentlessly analytical rather than narrative in nature. I learned much but there was even more that I didn't absorb. If I was teaching this period I would find this book essential, but I would need to study it rather than simply read it.
January 7, 2016
Tries to give a complete view of those times around X-XI century Europe. Many details, easy to read and gives his insight to this era. Investigates and thinks about what he´s reading. When he doesn´t know he doesn´t hesitate to say it
November 27, 2012
Il primo libro di storiografia medievale che io abbia letto. Avevo 16 anni e mi ha fatto scoprire la bellezza di una materia completamente affascinante.
April 2, 2021
Βιβλίο δύσκολο στην ανάγνωσή του, ίσως και λόγω της μετάφρασης, δίκαια όμως θεωρείται ένα από τα κορυφαία για τη μεσαιωνική ιστοριογραφία, αφού αναλύει διεξοδικότατα το φαινόμενο της φεουδαρχίας. Είναι ένα βιβλίο το οποίο οφείλει να υπάρχει στη βιβλιοθήκη κάθε ιστορικού που σέβεται τον εαυτό του.
May 23, 2017
Obra concisa sobre a era denominada feudal, desde o século VIII até ao século XIV. Não é leitura casual. O livro foi escrito por um conceituado historiador francês, March Bloch, para pessoas seriamente interessadas em história e que, pela natureza concisa do livro, o irão obrigatoriamente usar como ponto de partida para os seus próprios estudos (que é o que pretendo fazer). O livro traça as origens do sistema feudal, desde o desmembramento do Império Romano do Ocidente, com todas as influências que isso teve na sociedade da época até aos fins, quando a sociedade começou a transitar para a Idade Moderna.
Recomendo vivamente apenas a pessoas seriamente interessadas no estudo da história medieval.
Concise work about the so-called feudal age, from the VIII century to the XIV century. Not a casual reading. This work was writen by a renowned french historian, March Block, whose target audience is those seriously interested in studying history who will use it, by its very concise nature, as a starting point to their own academic studies (which I intend to do). This work delves into the origins of the feudal society, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and how society evolved, up until the transition to the Early Modern Age.
I highly recommend it but only to those seriously-minded in studying medieval history.
Recomendo vivamente apenas a pessoas seriamente interessadas no estudo da história medieval.
Concise work about the so-called feudal age, from the VIII century to the XIV century. Not a casual reading. This work was writen by a renowned french historian, March Block, whose target audience is those seriously interested in studying history who will use it, by its very concise nature, as a starting point to their own academic studies (which I intend to do). This work delves into the origins of the feudal society, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and how society evolved, up until the transition to the Early Modern Age.
I highly recommend it but only to those seriously-minded in studying medieval history.
August 1, 2015
Rich of insights about Europe's furfural society
Historian Marc Bloch gives opinions about various aspects in Europe's feudal society. His analysis and observations are insightful, rich, and even entertaining.
I was (particularly) attracted to feudal Europe's relations with Arabs and Muslims, due to my interests.
Historian Marc Bloch gives opinions about various aspects in Europe's feudal society. His analysis and observations are insightful, rich, and even entertaining.
I was (particularly) attracted to feudal Europe's relations with Arabs and Muslims, due to my interests.
June 21, 2021
Dense reading so not for a light bedtime read but fascinating subject matter. The narrative is interesting and well written if on occasions over detailed and thus overly heavy to read.
If you have an interest in this period, I would recommend a read but be warned you may down in the detail in places!!
If you have an interest in this period, I would recommend a read but be warned you may down in the detail in places!!
December 1, 2014
Feudalism as written by a Frenchman. Seriously deep. He writes of aspects of history that had never occurred to me. A book for the student of history. Nothing is left out.
A member of the French resistance in the second world war this author died at the hands of the Nazis.
A member of the French resistance in the second world war this author died at the hands of the Nazis.
February 23, 2024
Nie jest to z całą pewnością książka łatwa w lekturze. Jako synteza zjawiska istniejącego w Europie przez długie wieki, posiadającego wiele regionalnych odmian i wiele różnorakich przyczyn wręcz nie mogła ustrzec się długiej formy i skomplikowania treści. Nie ulega jednak wątpliwości, że wciąż jest to wartościowa monografia historyczna, która może stanowić dobre pierwsze spojrzenie na problem feudalizmu w średniowiecznej Europie.
August 12, 2023
This book is dense. It has a plethora of information about how societies were organized in the Middle Ages; mostly in France, Germany, and England, although Bloch does touch on Italy a little. I will say that the concept of feudalism is looked at differently, and the use of the term is debated, but I feel that Bloch had good information and he fairly pointed out the lack of consistency of policy between different regions. I think this book, especially as a foundational text for medieval studies, holds up well with new ideas and theories in medieval societies. On another note, this book is incredibly dense and took a long time to read without having a deadline. While I do see its merit, I would not necessarily recommend it to someone who is not thoroughly invested in medieval studies.
December 27, 2011
Die Entwicklunglinien und -phasen der Feudalgesellschaft im Mittelalter werden nachvollziehbar beschrieben und begründet. Zugleich gelingt es Bloch, die Lebensverhältnisse zu dieser Zeit erahnbar zu machen, ohne die Grenzen der Quellenlage zu verschweigen oder zu übertünchen.
January 8, 2011
十数年前に買ったが、全部読破しないまま実家のガレージで眠っていた本。正月に掘り出して来た。
Read
January 8, 2018Se mantiene bien pese a los años.
August 13, 2025
Tarihi “Büyük adamlar” ya da “savaş kroniği” yerine uzun dönemli sosyal, ekonomik ve kültürel yapısını incelemeye dayalı “Annales” tarih ekolunün kurucularından olan Marc Bloch’un baştapıtlarından biri olan bu kitabı Feodal Toplum yapısını anlamak isteyen herkese önerebilirim. Bloch eserinde Fransa, Almanya, İngiltere, İtalya, İspanya ve son olarak Japonya gibi farklı bölgelerdeki feodal yapıların benzerlik ve farklılıklarını güçlü arşiv ve belgelere dayanan kaynakçalarıyla ortaya koymuş. Feodal dünyayı ekonomik ilişkiler, sosyal hiyerarşiler, hukuk, zihniyet dünyası ve günlük yaşamla bir bütün olarak incelemiş. Karolenj hanedanından sonra zayıflayan devlet otoritesi ortamında ortaya çıkan feodal toplum düzeninde; Toprağın feodal toplumda üretin araçlarının merkezi olduğunu, toprağa sahip olmanın güçlü ve zengin olmak anlamına geldiğini, başlangıçta sözleşmeye dayalı insanın insana bağlılık ilişkilerinin zamanla ırsi olarak aktarılma şekline geliş sürecini Senyörler (feodal aristokrasi), vassaller (küçük soylular) ve serf ve köylüler toplumsal sınıflar üçgeni üzerinden tarihsel materyalizmin pek çok kavramıyla örtüşen bir şekilde ortaya koymuş. Senyörlerin aslında askeri bir sınıf olarak şövalye sınıfını oluşturduğu ve bu sınıfın zamanla elde ettikleri vergi muafiyetlerinin alt sınıflarda nasıl öfke biriktirdiğini de yine eserinde gösteriyor. Okurken şunu net bir şekilde hissettim, o dönemde yaşayan herhangi bir serf ya da köylünün ne geçmişe yönelik ne de gelecekte bu düzenin değişebileceğine yönelik bir hayal kurma düşünebilme yetisi yokmuş, bu sistemin böyle gelip böyle gideceğini, kralın yetkisini tanrıdan aldığını, senyörlerin dedelerinin bu toprakları çalışarak savaşarak hak ettikleriydi. Hayallerinin sınırları en fazla ya kendisinin çalıştığı “fief” (tımar) toprağını, çalışıp para biriktirerek “alleu” (kendi mülkiyeti) olarak satın alabileceği ya da kendi özgürlüğünü satın alabileceği değil de neydi? Bu kitabı okurken kurduğum cümleyi de buraya bırakıyorum. İnsanın insana bağlı olduğu ve insanın insanı sömürdüğü bu kan ve düzensizlik dolu feodal düzen bile değiştiyse hiçbir sistem sabit kalmaz, değişir…
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December 3, 2020Profesör Mehmet Ali Kılıçbay'ın Fransızcasından çevirdiği Fransız Tarih Profesörü Marc Bloch'un "Feodal Toplum" kitabı, Avrupa feodalizminin tarihi ile ilgili Türkçe'de yayınlanmış en ciddî kitaplardan biridir, dünyaca saygın bir tarih kitabıdır, 900 Sayfalık bir "anıtsal" kitap, "Feodal Toplum", Avrupa feodalizminin tarihini 11. Yüzyıl'dan 16. Yüzyıl'a beş yüzyılı aşmış gelişmesi içinde anlatan Marc Bloch'un Tarihçiliğinin sonsuzca zengin titizliği ile anlattığı "Feodal Toplum"u okumadan feodalizmle ilgili tartışmalar yapmak da yararsızdır. Marc Bloch, "Feodal Toplum"da, Fransa'da, Almanya'da, İspanya'da, Hollanda'da, İngiltere'de, feodalizmin gelişmesini "karşılaştırmalı" bir "sentezci" yaklaşımla - bir "Avrupa feodalizmi" vardır!- inceliyor. Marc Bloch, "Feodal Toplum"da, Avrupa feodalizminin toplumsal yapısal çözümlemesini yapıyor, "toplumsal sınıf"ların feodal toplumsal yapılarda nasıl geliştiğini, feodal toplumsal yapıların farklı Avrupa ülkelerinde gelişmelerindeki "çelişki"lerle nasıl değiştiklerini açıklıyor. "Feodal Toplum" kitabı, Marc Bloch'un tarihyazımına getirdiği yenilikleri nasıl uyguladığını belli eden bir kitap, Marc Bloch "Annales" tarih dergisinin kurucularından biri olarak, yeni bir tarihyazımı metodolojisi geliştirirken, yeni tarihyazımı metodolojisini tarihçi olarak "Feodal Toplum" kitabında uygulamakla da bir tarihyazımı devrimi yapıyor! Marc Bloch, "Feodal Toplum" kitabı ile, daha sonra gelişecek tarihyazımının da öncüsüdür, Braudel, Le Goff, Furet gibi Fransız tarih yazarlarının "Annales" tarih dergisi çevresinde yaptıkları dünyaca saygın tarihçiliğin kaynaklarını oluşturmuştur.
August 28, 2023
Reafirma en querer dedicarme a isto. Céntrase sobre todo en Francia, Alemaña, Reino Unido en menor medida España, Italia e os países do Norte. Paréceme moi amena para calquera que non sepa do tema é cunha grande cantidade de referencias documentais e bibliográficas para revisar con coidado e tirar de fíos que deixa. Moi recomendable.
November 3, 2025
老實說，沒讀通。布洛赫基本上是把受眾要求有相當程度史事瞭解，他信手拈來的例子，沒能明白其隱喻，也別想懂作者背後想表達的真正意思。而且他常常是在討論與對話，這都很吃底子。不過有一點很清楚：封建制度是西歐在兩次大入侵後的殘破社會底下，統治者利用現有的“材料”打造出來的“過渡產物”，不過隨著條件改變，也很快就被修正淘汰。或許我們可以問，如果法蘭克人扮演了鮮卑人在華夏的角色，重建了某種中央集權的政治秩序，歷史會走向何方？ 我個人覺得應該也不太容易。地中海從古典時期的城邦世界退化到農村主導的經濟體系，所以才衍生出封建制度，而當中世紀的盛期來臨，人口增長後城市再次復甦後，西歐才又恢復過去的輝煌。而那時早已太遲。查理曼等不到社會經濟的配合，在政治上重建官僚集權困難，是歷史的客觀條件限制，時不我予。
April 27, 2020
Impegnativo e specialistico, anche se datato resta attuale ma soprattutto spiega con l occhio critico di un esperto tanti aspetti storici e dettagli della civiltà feudale
December 14, 2023
Yo quiero mucho a este hombre porque se las aplicó a toda la academia con el uso de la memoria colectiva para el pasado remoto y "oscuro" de la Edad Media, gracias 😭
September 14, 2024
Good perspective on the late 1940s understanding of medieval europe, with a french bias understandable coming our of wwii
October 6, 2024
Прекрасная обзорная работа, живо написанная и бодро переведенная.
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May 2, 2025Un paradigma eterno. Return?
October 9, 2025
pietra miliare della scienza storica moderna. Meriterebbe una lettura approfondita e che vada a cogliere degli aspetti che possono sfuggire a chi si accosta al testo per una mera lettura di piacere.
October 21, 2025
Bloch libera o que a de basal no historiador, o que ele mesmo já disse, os significados mudam mas não ao mesmo ritmo que as palavras.
este-año
August 9, 2016El autor analiza en esta obra, ya un clásico de la historiografía sobre el período medieval, el autor trata temas como el modelo feudal de sociedad y las diferentes características de las sociedades feudales de Europa occidental y central, desde la mitad del siglo VIII a finales del XIII. El autor, Marc Bloch, toca puntos clave como: el feudalismo como tipo social y su acción, ¿feudalismo o feudalismos?, características fundamentales del feudalismo europeo y la idea guerrera y la idea de contrato. La primera parte del trabajo se enfocará en describir las condiciones generales del medio social y a continuación, la constitución de estas relaciones de dependencia de hombre a hombre que han sido las que han dado a la estructura feudal su matiz característico. La segunda parte estará enfocada en el desarrollo de las clases y la organización de los gobiernos.
November 2, 2012
un testo fondamentale per capire il medioevo
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