Cultures of Power: Lordship, Status, and Process in Twelfth-Century Europe

by Thomas N. Bisson (Editor)

The authors of Cultures of Power proffer diverse perspectives on the prehistory of government in Northern France, Spain, Germany, the Low Countries, and England. Political, social, ecclesiastical, and cultural history are brought to bear on topics such as aristocracies, women, rituals, commemoration, and manifestations of power through literary, legal, and scriptural means.

Genres: Medieval, History, Medieval History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Thomas Noel Bisson was an American historian, medievalist, academic and author. He was the Henry Charles Lea Professor of Medieval History Emeritus at Harvard University.
Bisson was elected a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (1975), a member of the American Philosophical Society (1977), and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1992). He also was a corresponding member of the Institute for Catalan Studies and the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona, and was a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly of interest for Stephen Jaeger's article on courtliness and social change, which treats quite thoughtfully the social functions of polemic versus idealist literature, and how historians might use them to find a middle way into a balanced history of knightly and/or courtly culture in the high middle ages. Also interesting was Stephen White's article on the ordeal, and how it was deployed in legal proceedings not just as a matter of course, but because it functioned as leverage for either side of a dispute to force the issue. Other articles on social mobility and the meaning of feudal relations were less compelling.