- Hardcover: 326 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (30 July 1996)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691011346
- ISBN-13: 978-0691011349
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.3 x 2.8 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 741,256 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The Great Famine
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Product Description
Review
In this important new synthesis of the causes, course, and consequences of the Great Famine, Jordan offers a corrective to the view that after its initial crippling effects, famine continued to afflict Europe until the ultimate devastation of the Black Death... A richly detailed cultural history that considers significant regional variations and stresses the event's human dimension, including its manifold and different effects in rural and urban contexts and on people of differing age, status, and power... This will become the standard work on the subject. Choice Ever since the publication of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, many readers have had a sneaking suspicion that the 14th century is uncannily similar to our own. Anyone who takes up this book in hopes of finding a new Tuchman will find something better, though: a work of great depth written in a scholarly though engaging way... [T]he impressive scholarship ... deserves to be appreciated for its own merits. Among the many virtues of this readable work are the corrections of many common misperceptions of the Middle Ages and a bibliography that is extensive and impressive... Publishers Weekly A richly detailed cultural history... This will become the standard work on the subject. Choice Anyone who takes up this book in hopes of finding a new Tuchman will find something better, though: a work of great depth written in a scholarly though engaging way. Publishers Weekly
Product Description
The Great Famine (1315-1322), lived on for centuries in the minds of many, who recalled tales of widespread hunger, class warfare, epidemic disease, high mortality, and unspeakable crimes. In this volume, William Jordan explores the famine from Ireland to western Poland, from Scandinavia to central France and western Germany. He presents a cultural history of medieval community life, drawing his evidence from such sources as meteorological and agricultural records, accounts kept at monasteries providing for the needy, and documentation of military campaigns. The social and environmental factors that caused this particular disaster and allowed it to happen for so long are investigated, along with why certain responses to the famine failed.
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First Sentence
THE WORD famine, as used in this book, refers to a catastrophic subsistence crisis, the extreme limit of a wide spectrum of shortages that have sometimes been given the name in popular writing and speech. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
THE WORD famine, as used in this book, refers to a catastrophic subsistence crisis, the extreme limit of a wide spectrum of shortages that have sometimes been given the name in popular writing and speech. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
The Famine Portends a Catastrophie.
14 Sep 2011
Format:Hardcover
This book is a must read for anyone who wishes to understand what Barbara Tuchman called the "Calamitous 14th Century".
Having said that, Tuchman's book is not in the same class as this account.
More than half the pages of the book are devoted to citations in Latin, French, German and English.
To be fair, the book is well written rather than a page turner.
Nonetheless if you wish to have some understanding of what happened to Northern Europe between 1315 and 1322 you need go no further.
One final note: it is possible that the effects of the famine resulted in an enhanced susceptibility of the populations to the Bubonic Plague of 1348 due to the underdevelopment of the immune systems of children growing up in a nutrition deficient atmosphere.
Best regards,
James
Having said that, Tuchman's book is not in the same class as this account.
More than half the pages of the book are devoted to citations in Latin, French, German and English.
To be fair, the book is well written rather than a page turner.
Nonetheless if you wish to have some understanding of what happened to Northern Europe between 1315 and 1322 you need go no further.
One final note: it is possible that the effects of the famine resulted in an enhanced susceptibility of the populations to the Bubonic Plague of 1348 due to the underdevelopment of the immune systems of children growing up in a nutrition deficient atmosphere.
Best regards,
James
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