East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500

A History of East Central Europe #3

by Jean W. Sedlar

Although the Middle Ages saw brilliant achievements in the diverse nations of East Central Europe, this period has been almost totally neglected in Western historical scholarship. East Central Europe in the Middle Ages provides a much-needed overview of the history of the region from the time when the present nationalities established their state structures and adopted Christianity up to the Ottoman conquest. Jean Sedlar's excellent synthesis clarifies what was going on in Europe between the Elbe and the Ukraine during the Middle Ages, making available for the first time in a single volume information necessary to a fuller understanding of the early history of present-day Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia.

Sedlar writes clearly and fluently, drawing upon publications in numerous languages to craft a masterful study that is accessible and valuable to the general reader and the expert alike. The book is organized thematically; within this framework Sedlar has sought to integrate nationalities and to draw comparisons. Topics covered include early migrations, state formation, monarchies, classes (nobles, landholders, peasants, herders, serfs, and slaves), towns, religion, war, governments, laws and justice, commerce and money, foreign affairs, ethnicity and nationalism, languages and literature, and education and literacy.

After the Middle Ages these nations were subsumed by the Ottoman, Habsburg, Russian, and Prussian-German empires. This loss of independence means that their history prior to foreign conquest has acquired exceptional importance in today's national consciousness, and the medieval period remains a major point of reference and a source of national pride and ethnic identity. This book is a substantial and timely contribution to our knowledge of the history of East Central Europe.

Genres: History, Medieval, Medieval History

556 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[William Bies · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone raised and educated in the West, the vast expanse of central and eastern Europe can represent something of a terra incognita. For the typical curriculum in high-school history and English comprehends at most the literature of America and western European countries and may include selections from places farther east only from the modern period and after; the distant past, medieval or earlier, remains unmentioned and unknown. Even if one goes on in college to study the classical antiquity of Greece and Rome or, if inclined to biblical archaeology, perhaps the ancient near East as well, the regions to the north (Thrace) and northeast (Scythia) of the Mediterranean impinge only slightly on the historical record until the tribal migrations around the time of the fall of the Roman empire in the west – and late antiquity rarely receives the attention one might think it due; in any event, there then stretches over a millenium until one reaches the early modern period, when the history normally taught to students picks up.

Casting about in order to come up with a good secondary source with which to fill the gap, this recensionist came across the present work by Jean Sedlar entitled East Central Europe in the Middle Ages, 1000-1500, published in 1994 by the University of Washington Press as part of a ten-volume series. Subject to a certain peculiarity we shall comment on in a moment, it proves to be a good choice. Its fifteen chapters spanning almost five hundred densely printed pages could best be regarded as a series of extended encyclopedia articles, loosely related by the fact that they all bear on various aspects of medieval central and eastern European history. Thus: early migrations; state formation; monarchies; nobles and landholders; peasants, herders, serfs and slaves; towns and townspeople; religion and the churches; the art and practice of war; governments; laws and justice; commerce and money; foreign affairs; ethnicity and nationalism; languages and literatures; and lastly, education and literacy.

Thus baldly to present the contents would be to belie their quality. For many of them do involve admirably composed micro-analyses which proceed methodically across space and time in order to cover all of the many diverse peoples who figure in the historical record in reasonable, though not excessive detail. At first, this recensionist found Sedlar’s prose style off-putting but later he warmed up to it. For she appears to write in total oblivion of any overarching narrative and does not pursue any high-level theses such as one would be familiar with in the work of other ancient and medieval historians of note, say Peter Brown or Carolyn Walker Bynum. As if one were to become so engrossed in the trees that the forest would cease to exist! The style seems, moreover, to reflect a deliberate choice, a judgment as to what the proper task of the professional historian ought to consist in. If, as Jean-François Lyotard tells us, the post-modern condition consists in incredulity towards any and every meta-narrative, then what else could history be but disaggregated heap of aimless micro-narratives? But the hermeneutics of suspicion has always struck this recensionist as resting upon gratuitous blanket assertions. Ipse dixit.

Be that as it may, as long as one is prepared to accept that one is not going to get any meta-narrative whatsoever from Sedlar’s treatment of her subject, it becomes an enjoyable read once one realizes how much one can revel in the generous detail – for, as stated, in many cases the quality of the exposition and analysis at the microscopic level is nothing short of excellent. To mention but one example, the invasions of the Asiatic hordes that so menaced central Europeans repeatedly during the dark ages. The invaders favored light cavalry and tactics centered on speed. They were, in fact, severely limited by an almost complete lack of a supply chain and therefore could not afford to remain for very long in any one location, since local resources seized upon foraging would run out in short order. Likewise, they were never very effective in hand-to-hand combat against heavily armed infantry. Thus, Europeans eventually learned to counter and neutralize the threat by emphasizing fortification of towns (which would thereby become all but invulnerable to siege), and equipment of a heavy cavalry that could strike back at the invaders’ weakest point, when they were on the return march home and encumbered with wagons laden with plunder.

Sedlar shines similarly in her description of the Byzantines’ military and diplomatic strategy which ensured the continued existence of the Roman empire in the east for a thousand years after the empire in the west fell, despite loss of territory and the never-ending efforts on the part both of the barbarians and of the Saracens to defeat it. Really, on most every topic the details she adduces and observations she makes help to flesh out the subject very well and to give the reader insight into why the history played out the way it did. For this reason, we award four stars even though as history in and of itself it would deserve only three. As a resource with which to support a deeper understanding of the medieval period in east central Europe known through other sources or to be mobilized to underwrite somebody’s thesis about the human condition etc., it is indeed very fine work.