READING AND REFLECTION OF BOOKS (SEMESTER-1)

SEMESTER-1

READING AND REFLECTION OF BOOKS

BOOK-1

Economic And History of Medieval Europe

                                                      - Henri Pirenne 

                                                      Henri Pirenne (French: 23 December 1862 – 24 October 1935) was a Belgian historian. A medievalist of Walloon descent, he wrote a multi volume history of Belgium in French and became a national hero. He also became prominent in the nonviolent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I. Henri Pirenne's reputation today rests on three contributions to European history: for what has become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; for a distinctive view of Belgium's medieval history; and for his model of the development of the medieval city. Pirenne argued that profound social, economic, cultural, and religious movements in the long term resulted from equally profound underlying causes, and this attitude influenced Marc Bloch and the outlook of the French Annales School of social history. Though Pirenne had his opponents, notably Alfons Dopsch who disagreed on essential points, several recent historians of the Middle Ages have taken Pirenne's main theses, however much they are modified, as starting points.

                            2014 Reprint of 1937 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Henri Pirenne's reputation today rests on three contributions to European history: for what has become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning the origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; for a distinctive view of Belgium's medieval history; and for his model of the development of the medieval city. Pirenne argued that profound social, economic, cultural, and religious movements in the long-term resulted from equally profound underlying causes, and this attitude influenced Marc Bloch and the outlook of the French "Annales" School of social history. Though Pirenne had his opponents who disagreed on essential points, recent historians of the Middle Ages usually take Pirenne's main theses, however much they are modified, as starting points.

BOOK-2

Feudal Societ

                       -marc Leopold Benjamin Bloch

              

               Marc Leopild Benjamin Bloch was born in 16 July 1886. He was a French historian. In 1926 he published one of his most famous work “The Magic Work Kings”. Bloch’s most important work centered on the study of feudalism. He published a large work available in two volume English translation as feudal society

                Bloch’s feudal society as a valuable contribution to be read and pondered , although not taken at face value by any one seriouialy interested in medieval European society or supposedly comparable supers elsewhere. Since it has supposedly comparable systems elsewhere. Since it has also generated a half-century of follow-up, attacks and defenses, it is also a good book to have read as part of getting acquainted with a Wicked literature.