Feudal Society as a Living Organism and Bloch's Audience

In his introduction, Bloch writes, “In other words, what we are attempting here is to analyse and explain a social structure and its unifying principles” (xxvi).  Bloch’s work treats feudal society as a “living organism,” (xxvii) exploring its mental atmosphere and its “microorganisms’,” i.e. its people’s, web of societal ties.   He brings this organism to life for his reader in his vivid account of the lived human relationships within feudal society, such as ties of kinship (and how the actions of one member of the family apply to all), the swearing of homage and fealty (and the differences between the two), and various complications that arise when either a lord or a vassal passes away before the other (such as when the heir of a fief is a minor). 

Furthermore, he does so in a guiding and honest fashion, making sure to acknowledge when his sources fall short of answering the questions that he poses.  He writes, for example, “... yet no study has been more neglected than that of this social geography.  It is therefore only possible here to offer a little guidance to students” (176).  This statement addresses Zachary’s prompt for this week by hinting that perhaps Professor Bloch’s audience is students, even though Bloch’s work has “had an impact on the medievalist, the non-historical specialist, the student, and the general reader,” as Brown acknowledges in his foreword.  In any event, after reading Feudal Society, it is clear to me that Bloch has accomplished something that would “leave him well content”, which is to leave its readers hungry to learn and to inquire (xxvii).