Debating Medieval Europe: The Early Middle Ages, c. 450–c. 1050

by Stephen Mossman (Editor)

This unique textbook introduces undergraduate students to medieval historiography, providing an entry point for the dense scholarship on the period. Volume I covers the post-Roman world, from 450 to 1050.

307 pages, Hardcover

Published January 29, 2020

Reviews

[Peter Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Debating Medieval Europe – the early middle ages, c450 – c1050, Mossman (ed), 2020, 307 pages


This book is gold dust for anyone studying this period who has an eye on wider trends and questions than just what was occurring in Anglo-Saxon England. It's aimed at the intelligent under-grad and provides a lot of insight into current scholarly debates concerning:


The Transformation of the Roman World c450-c550
The Successor States
The Carolingian Moment
Ottonian Germany
Feudal Revolution?
Vikings and the 'Age of Iron' in the North Sea
The Christian kingdoms of Early Medieval Spain 800-1100
England and the Atlantic archipelago: from Alfred to the Norman Conquest
The Norman World 1000-1100


As can be readily seen, there are plenty of interesting papers that take in western Europe. However, only two are directly relevant to Anglo-Saxon England:

Vikings and the 'Age of Iron' in the North Sea and England and the Atlantic archipelago: from Alfred to the Norman Conquest, both by Charles Insley and these are what I bought the book for. The others I intend to read, but not this weekend.


Vikings and the 'Age of Iron' in the North Sea (C Insley)

This was an excellent paper that with great clarity summed up where we stand with scholarship in this area. I found it very thought provoking. A lot of the old 'certainties' have been questioned for a generation or so and the results are only now really beginning to enter a wider circulation amongst the population. Not all Scandinavians were vikings and not all vikings were Scandinavians. This is something that cannot be emphasised enough. It is the same with the amount of diversity within both the geographic and temporal spans. Whilst there were plenty of cultural similarities, there were also plenty of differences within Scandinavia and the cultures that formed in other areas that experienced contact. It is often these differences that are the more fascinating. This is an eye opening paper that clearly articulates the wider picture.


England and the Atlantic archipelago: from Alfred to the Norman Conquest (C Insley)

This was another thought provoking and very readable paper that went into the ongoing debates surrounding this particular time and place. You know a paper is a winner when even the footnotes are interesting to read. This is a very balanced account of where we stand with questions such as the strength of the Anglo-Saxon 'State', ethnicity and the impact of the vikings, religious developments and so on. Insley shows how very little was black and white and just how many previously held certainties dissolve under closer scrutiny. You certainly come away with a more questioning mindset and more willing to consider how what might have been true for one area wasn't for another and how things changed over time. Of particular importance was the stressing that identity has quite often this has been approached by historians in an anachronistic manner and how the folk of the time probably held contextual identities and much more.