Description
The past is a foreign country: this is your guidebook. Take a step back into Ian Mortimer's guide and experience the Middle Ages like never before.
In this compelling volume, medieval history expert Ian Mortimer (The Fears of Henry IV) transports readers to jolly, squalid old England for a thorough survey of everyday 14th-century life. Going beyond the 'nasty, brutish and short' view, Mortimer's immersive visitor's guide gives readers a seamless sense of being there. The population is young—'Half of the population is aged twenty-one or less'—but incredibly diverse. The idea that social classes were distinct and fixed—fighters, prayers, and farmers—gets exploded in Mortimer's examination of society and the medieval character, which covers everything from humor and juggling to mariners and doctors. Mortimer even argues, convincingly, over relative standards of hygiene ('to regard a medieval kitchen as "dirty" because it has not been wiped down with modern detergent is to apply our own standards inappropriately'). He also looks at the period's greatest writers and reveals the horrors of contemporary medicine (with terrifying descriptions of the plague) and law (the outskirts of every town were decorated with the hanged corpses of minor criminals). Mortimer's tongue-in-cheek visitor's guide is an impressive accomplishment, making 600 years of history transparent to give 21st-century audiences a clear view of medieval life.