Bloch's Middle Ages

Bloch approached his book, Feudal Society, from an interesting perspective.  Bloch did not write for the typical historian; he is quite clear of this fact on page xxvii where he states “History, not historians, is my concern.”  Bloch found that viewing history from a solely scientific-style approach was too rigid and was prohibitive to truly understanding history.  Therefore, he took a more anthropological approach to his work, tying in cultural influences to create a more thorough description of the period.

Bloch uses few sources throughout the book and the reader can find himself going several pages between footnotes.  Many footnotes are merely a way to clarify a point or discuss it further without cluttering up the main text.  From reading his introduction and reviewing the citations, he appears to have been very discerning when choosing his sources.  However, his presentation of these lack a professionalism that is necessary for his book to have much clout.  Bloch mentions a bibliography, however in the Routledge 2001 edition of Volume 1 it is noticeably lacking.  It would have been beneficial to include a bibliography in all separately printed volumes.

I think that Bloch’s book is very well written and an interesting read.  He has made a period which can seem rather dull interesting to the reader.  He makes you want to travel back to medieval times and experience their culture.  This is the first book we have read this semester that I would like to keep and return to at a later date.