Living in the Tenth Century: Mentalities and Social Orders

by Heinrich Fichtenau, Patrick J. Geary (Translator)

"Fichtenau delivers a fascinating view of tenth-century Europe on the eve of the second millenium. He writes this hoping we, on the eve of the third millennium, will take time also to look at who we are and at our world. . . . This engaging book lucidly carries the reader through an amazing amount of material. Medieval scholars will find it resourceful and challenging; the nonscholar will find it fascinating and enlightening."—A. L. Kolp, Choice

" Living in the Tenth Century resembles an anthropological field study more than a conventional historical monograph, and represents a far more ambitious attempt to see behind the surface of avowals and events than others have seriously attempted even for much more voluminously documented periods. . . . It is remarkably rich and readable."—R.I. Moore, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Fichtenau offers a magnificent survey of all the main spheres of the social order, the rural economy, schooling and religious belief and practice in both the secular and monastic church. His command, especially of the narrative sources, their fine nuances of attitude emotion and underlying norms, is masterly and he employs them here with all the sensitiveness and feel for the subject that have always been the hallmarks of his work."—Karl Leyser, Francia

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History

494 pages, Paperback

First published June 17, 1991

Reviews

[Sallan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book is excellent at what it sets out to do, four stars might be a bit misleading. The work of an eminent Austrian historian (who, according to one source, finished his dissertation while serving on the Russian front in WWII!), this English translation is a bit shorter but still almost 500 pages. It isn't a conventionally entertaining or easy read, in part because it assumes a certain familiarity with the ninth-tenth centuries. And although I did encounter a few old friends (like Notkar Balbulus, who showed up in one of my undergraduate music history classes), I ended up looking up a lot of names and places. This actually extended my enjoyment of exploring the book's content. In fact, I did so much reading about my reading that it took me a year to finish this book. If you're considering this book, be aware that rather than providing a chronological account, it's organized around themes of social organization. And some people, places, and things appear more than once in the text but in different contexts, which often sent me searching backward in the book to tie things together (the index isn't much help). Still, Living in the Tenth Century provides a fascinating look at human society organized under profoundly different conditions than our own, and I appreciated encountering that difference.

[Daria · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone studying the Middle Ages.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an "I'm old and about to retire, so let me tell you everything I've learned in the last 40 years" book. It's better than many other books of that variety. Unfortunately, Pat Geary's translation cut large swaths out of the original German (which I, currently, can only poke about in), and, more annoyingly, cut 95% of the footnotes. So it's a good book, but a so-so translation.