A Cultural History of the North Sea and the Transformation of Europe Pdf, Epub, Ebook

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD: A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE NORTH SEA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Related Searches. Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed. This is the story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of View Product. A Rope from the Sky: The Making and. The birth of South Sudan was celebrated world-wide, a triumph acclaimed not only by its long-oppressed people, but by three presidents and millions Part memoir, part feminist manifesto, Amazon Woman shows what incredible feats we are capable of and will encourage people, especially The riveting untold story behind the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik The riveting untold story behind the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik to stop the nuclear arms race. Henri Bergson was a French professor and philosopher. Born in Paris in to a Born in Paris in to a Polish composer and Yorkshire woman of Irish descent, his revelatory ideas of life as ceaseless transformation and the importance of attention, learning, humor and joy Log In Sign Up. Download Free PDF. The Edge of the World. Olivier Walther. The Edge of the World tells the story of Europe before states were strong enough to control the movement of people and goods and impose exclusive national identities. Living between the Franks in the west and the Saxons in the east, the Frisians developed long-distance trade routes, spreading the use of money across the North Sea. The Vikings did not limit their incursions to the coasts of the North Sea. They ravaged England, Ireland, and much of the rest of Europe that was accessible to their warships, venturing to such distant places as Iceland, Constantinople, Greenland, and the New World, which they called Vineland. Pushing the limits of the known world, the Vikings brought disruptions and greater circulation to Europe. After the dust of the pillages had settled came a time of settlements and trade. Many cities in Ireland and Britain bear the marks of their Norse conquerors. As the cities in Northern Italy, the Hansa cities became powers without flags, seals or kings. At the edge of a world where territorial powers had remained fragmented, they lived from the sea and established a sophisticated network of trade posts from which merchants competed, using violence and threats in order to keep trade routes open. Nowhere in the book does the author succumb to the temptation of environmental deter- minism. The Frisians of the 7—10th centuries, for example, built artificial dwelling mounds called Terpen to protect themselves from the fury of the sea and developed markets where herders and farmers could use coins to trade their pro- ducts. Later on, flood mitigation and land-drainage became even more substantial and contrib- uted to the propagation of capitalism in the Low Countries. The Frisians, and then other groups along the Dutch and Flemish coasts, heaped soil up into artificial hills and used dams and dikes to reclaim land from the sea and rivers. The reclaimed land was good for pasturing, which led to the herding of cows and then to another Dutch innovation, cleanliness, because butter- and cheese-making demanded it. These coastal peoples did business with one another. Their activity required a currency to give relative value to various goods, so the participants resurrected the Roman practice of using coin money. Later, the first stock exchanges came into being in this part of Europe. Pye devotes a good chunk of his book to the boogeymen of medieval Europe, the Vikings. They enriched themselves, and in time their innovations were adopted by others. The cities that participated in the Hanseatic League — which ranged around the North and Baltic Seas and made free-trading alliances with little regard for national boundaries — are prime evidence for this argument. On the contrary, he has made such a compelling case that I would have welcomed more development of these far-flung connections.

Now the critically acclaimed Michael Pye reveals the cultural transformation sparked by those men and women: the ideas, technology, science, law, and moral codes that helped create our modern world. This is the magnificent lost history of a thousand years. It was on the shores of the North Sea where experimental science was born, where women first had the right to choose whom they married; there was the beginning of contemporary business transactions and the advent of the printed book. In The Edge of the World, Michael Pye draws on an astounding breadth of original source material to illuminate this fascinating region during a pivotal era in world history. He won various prizes in Modern History at Oxford before working as a journalist, columnist, and broadcaster in London and New York. He now divides his time between London and rural Portugal. Table of Contents Introduction 1 1 The invention of money 27 2 The book trade 48 3 Making enemies 69 4 Settling 96 5 Fashion 6 Writing the law 7 Overseeing nature 8 Science and money 9 Dealers rule 10 Love and capital 11 The plague laws 12 The city and the world References Acknowledgements Index Related Searches. Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed. This is the story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of View Product. A Rope from the Sky: The Making and. He is looking at archaeological evidence that shows a much more gradual takeover, involving centuries of peaceable trade and commingling. Much of the story Pye reports involves money and the making of it. The people he writes about lived marginal lives; they inhabited the marshy and unpredictable coastal lands that kings and noble families tended to stay clear of. They learned to do things on their own, as individuals. The Frisians, and then other groups along the Dutch and Flemish coasts, heaped soil up into artificial hills and used dams and dikes to reclaim land from the sea and rivers. The reclaimed land was good for pasturing, which led to the herding of cows and then to another Dutch innovation, cleanliness, because butter- and cheese-making demanded it. These coastal peoples did business with one another. Their activity required a currency to give relative value to various goods, so the participants resurrected the Roman practice of using coin money. Later, the first stock exchanges came into being in this part of Europe. Again, no mention. Pye talks a lot about the British Isles and Ireland, as well as the cities that currently make up Belgium and the Netherlands, and northern France, and the trade routes that connected them. If it were not for the Vikings, Saxons, and Frisians, those would not exist. Dec 12, Esther rated it liked it. This is a rich book but nevertheless somewhat disappointing. The overarching ideas in the book, summarised in the final pages are highly relevant and very interesting, but they are hidden in a deluge of small facts, people and ideas. In one chapter fashion, money and monks are coming along. Some topics could have been left out fashion and others elaborated more upon Hansen cities , I would have liked that better. Jun 16, Frank Capria rated it did not like it. Like many others I was very disappointed with this book. Aside from failing to convincingly prove his thesis, the writing is deadly. Pye states the obvious repeatedly just as that professor of history whose course you would have dropped after the first lecture if it was not required. The gaps in the narrative leave the reader wondering if the Vikings actually did sail off the edge of the earth because they simply disappear. I cannot recommend this book to anyone. View 1 comment. May 10, Jeffrey Howard rated it it was ok Shelves: history-european. If it weren't for the subject matter I would give this book a single star. Pye begins with a promising premise and ultimately falls short of it, majorly. He attempts to tell the tale of Northern Europe where "identity became a matter of where you were and where you last came from, not some abstract notion of race; peoples were not separated sharply as they were by nineteenth-century frontiers, venturing out only to conquer or be conquered. Indeed, quite often they ventured out to change sides. I If it weren't for the subject matter I would give this book a single star. Instead of dark mistakes about pure blood, racial identity, homogenous nations with their own soul and spirit and distinct nature, we have something far more exciting: the story of people making choices, not always freely, sometimes under fearsome pressure, but still choosing and inventing and making lives for themselves. Unfortunately, his book is poorly organized, and disjointed. He meanders through a patchwork of stories, commentary, and details that don't appear to be threaded together by any central thesis. He jumps from one century to another, from one historical figure to the next and ends a chapter without connecting it to his ultimate premise. The reader is left wondering, how the hell did this end up shaping modern Europe? He doesn't connect the dots and doesn't make a convincing case. Did the peoples of the North Seas impact history? Certainly, but no case is made for exactly how the fashion, politics, money, law, science, and views on marriage directly created Modern Europe. He spewed all sorts of trivia, small scenes, and vague summaries about the medieval period. He gives his readers little structure upon which to hang and organize all these bits of information. I wanted so badly to care and be interested. Instead, he took a subject I care a lot about and turned it into flotsam and jetsom--how does one make Vikings and the wanderers of Northern Europe uninteresting? I am a disciplined reader who completes nearly every book I start, as a personal rule, even when I don't gather much joy from it. This book is one of those rare exceptions. Jul 01, Lemar rated it really liked it Shelves: non-fiction , s , history. This is a fascinating book which offers a new and missing perspective on why things are the way they they are now. The best history books never lose sight of that connectionand Michael Pye consistently links his research to the present. The missing contribution he brings to light is the huge contribution made by the cultures of peoples who inhabited the edge of the map, the places marked on maps with fantastical drawings and warnings like 'Here Be Dragons'. The Frisians, Vikings, Angles, Irish, This is a fascinating book which offers a new and missing perspective on why things are the way they they are now. The Frisians, Vikings, Angles, Irish, Dutch had cultures built around use of the sea as a connection, not a barrier. They were traders often without the restrictiveness of being bound by feudal society. Pye points out how many of the elements we cherish most: freedom over our sex lives, freedom to move to a new city, the use of money instead of barter, freedom to dress how we want, freedom to move up in social standing, had strong roots in these cultures. We all learn a lot about famous Kings of France and England, a lot about Popes and Byzantium, all of which is relevant but not as dear to our daily lives as the legacy we inherit from those at the Edge of the World. My quibbles are that the book could have benefited by a stronger editor who could have tightened it up as it was a bit rambling. Pye includes a large and valuable bibliography but relies almost completely on secondary sources rather than digging in to the first hand material himself. I recommend this book to anyone who likes tracing the origins of our modern culture, Pye has provided a missing link. But around years ago that focus of power moved from the Mediterranean area to the small shallow sea in between Britain and Europe, the North Sea. The region had been conquered by the Romans years ago, but after they left it became a bit of a backwater. It changed as the people who lived on the shores came to master boat building, setting off on voyages far beyond the small limits of the N Different regions of Europe have had power, from the Egyptians, the Greeks and Persians and Romans. It changed as the people who lived on the shores came to master boat building, setting off on voyages far beyond the small limits of the North Sea to discover lands across the vast Atlantic Ocean. Some of the seafarers bought terror to some places, we all know about the Vikings and their raids on coastal villages and monasteries, but slowly peaceful trade took over. Ideas and goods began to move back and forth across the waters, populations moved and settled, they adapted to change fairly quickly and the whole region thrived. Pye looks at the history of this region through various subjects, money, fashion, nature and science to name a few, and teases out various stories and anecdotes to demonstrate his case. Splitting it by theme meant that you were jumping backwards and forwards and from place to place. For me, concentrating on specific historical periods would have been better as it did feel that it was jumping around too much from period to period. Feb 02, J. Sutton rated it liked it. Besides gaps in the argument possibly caused by the scarcity of primary documents , it felt like Pye was trying too hard to stretch the importance of specific accounts. Nov 28, Kristin rated it did not like it Shelves: history-medieval. My high hopes for this book were quickly dashed. A review that I read claimed Pye had written an integrated history of the North Sea, crossing national boundaries to show how the region fit together as a unit. As an English historian who knows little of other North Sea countries, that sounded amazing. In practice, however, Pye's work leaves much to be desired. His thesis is that the banks of the North Sea were responsible for the birth of modernity, spawning a number of ideas that have become in My high hopes for this book were quickly dashed. His thesis is that the banks of the North Sea were responsible for the birth of modernity, spawning a number of ideas that have become integral to the modern world. Yet his argument leaves much to be desired. There seems to be a relative chronological progression across the book, but Pye's contextualization of the events he discusses is poor, so I found myself often losing track of time and place. When he did contextualize, it was clear that he was often blurring significant geographical and chronological distances in order to make his points. I was particularly frustrated with his chapter on women, which used examples from across several hundred years to claim that gender relationships were becoming more modern, but he neglects to present a point of comparison to begin with - more modern than what? Overall, I saw an unfortunate cherry-picking trend throughout his argument that served to weaken his points considerably. Pye came into this work with preconceived ideas about what was "modern," and scanned his sources most of which were secondary works until he found something that resembled them however superficially in the past. As a medieval historian, I was also put off by Pye's premise. He claims to be redeeming the "Dark Ages" by pointing out its modern features. First of all, the term "Dark Ages," while marketable, is extremely problematic. Even more so is the period Pye uses this label for, which seems to date from the sixth or seventh century to the seventeenth. Even more unfortunate, however, is how he ends the book, implying that these "modern" elements were the only worthwhile things to come out of this wide- ranging historical period. Pye seems to see history as a progression toward the modern, an idea that went out of fashion in the early twentieth century along with imperialism and colonialism. Do the medieval and early modern periods have nothing to teach us on their own? Were their ideas and values of no merit? By dismissing this significant span of time, Pye joins a long tradition of scholarship including that of the Italian Renaissance - the other "birth of the modern" that he pits himself against who have rejected the Middle Ages because it did not appeal to them. Full of information It's an informational book, without the literary zest that makes some non-fiction absorbing. Nonetheless, the information chosen and the chronology draws my interest, and makes it above merely informational. Although I didn't want to finish it at first, it drew me in. May 01, Stefaan Van ryssen rated it it was amazing. Enlightening and fresh view on the development of the UK, the low countries, Scandinavia and a bit further, Greenland, Iceland, the first norse or viking settlements in nowadays Canada etc. Clear, well supported with arguments and references. Not for the academic historian but at an academic level for the lay and the interested. I liked the parts on the Vikings most. These brave people have a bad reputation, but that cannot be deserved unless one disregards their incredible contributions to trade Enlightening and fresh view on the development of the UK, the low countries, Scandinavia and a bit further, Greenland, Iceland, the first norse or viking settlements in nowadays Canada etc. These brave people have a bad reputation, but that cannot be deserved unless one disregards their incredible contributions to trade and civilisation. It's a damned shame they turned christian and lost all the nice traits of their society, e. Dec 25, Veronica rated it it was amazing. There were violent winds tearing down leaves and branches. Sand drifts and smothers, water breaks into the land…sudden storms like the night of the red moon take a whole harvest and leave hunger behind. Jan 02, Eric Timar rated it did not like it. The subject matter of this book really appealed to me, and I hate to sound like a dullard who wants his history books to be just "one damned fact after another," but for me this book was too much anecdote and not enough big picture overview. I think a good book like this needs both. Feb 22, Nikhil Shah rated it it was amazing. It was easy for Scandinavians to be in York, Frisians in Ipswich, Saxons in London, and the fact was so unremarkable that it is hardly recorded. That a party whose main promise is "If you think in terms of the time it takes to get to places, then Bergen in Norway is closer [to Ipswich] than York in England That a party whose main promise is to turn its back on Europe is strongest on that coast which has historically been our most cosmopolitan, the embarking-point for goods, ideas and genes from across the North Sea and beyond. After reading this fantastic book, my suspicion is that the Brits' idea of Europe is unduly shaped by holidays in the sun.

Members save with free shipping everyday! See details. Now the critically acclaimed Michael Pye reveals the cultural transformation sparked by those men and women: the ideas, technology, science, law, and moral codes that helped create our modern world. This is the magnificent lost history of a thousand years. It was on the shores of the North Sea where experimental science was born, where women first had the right to choose whom they married; there was the beginning of contemporary business transactions and the advent of the printed book. In The Edge of the World, Michael Pye draws on an astounding breadth of original source material to illuminate this fascinating region during a pivotal era in world history. He won various prizes in Modern History at Oxford before working as a journalist, columnist, and broadcaster in London and New York. He now divides his time between London and rural Portugal. Table of Contents Introduction 1 1 The invention of money 27 2 The book trade 48 3 Making enemies 69 4 Settling 96 5 Fashion 6 Writing the law 7 Overseeing nature 8 Science and money 9 Dealers rule 10 Love and capital 11 The plague laws 12 The city and the world References Acknowledgements Index Related Searches. Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed. This is the story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of View Product. A Rope from the Sky: The Making and. The birth of South Sudan was celebrated world-wide, a triumph acclaimed not only by its long-oppressed people, but by three presidents and millions Part memoir, part feminist manifesto, Amazon Woman shows what incredible feats we are capable of and will encourage people, especially The riveting untold story behind the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik The riveting untold story behind the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik to stop the nuclear arms race. Henri Bergson was a French professor and philosopher. Pye follows in the wake of a number of academic historians, many from the parts of Europe he writes about, but the synthesis and presentation are all his own. They are usefully, and often delightfully, jarring. Coastal England is one of the places the North Sea washes, and Pye starts by providing a corrective to our common understanding of how England came to be. He is looking at archaeological evidence that shows a much more gradual takeover, involving centuries of peaceable trade and commingling. Much of the story Pye reports involves money and the making of it. The people he writes about lived marginal lives; they inhabited the marshy and unpredictable coastal lands that kings and noble families tended to stay clear of. They learned to do things on their own, as individuals. The Frisians, and then other groups along the Dutch and Flemish coasts, heaped soil up into artificial hills and used dams and dikes to reclaim land from the sea and rivers. The reclaimed land was good for pasturing, which led to the herding of cows and then to another Dutch innovation, cleanliness, because butter- and cheese-making demanded it. These coastal peoples did business with one another. Their activity required a currency to give relative value to various goods, so the participants resurrected the Roman practice of using coin money. Later, the first stock exchanges came into being in this part of Europe. Pye devotes a good chunk of his book to the boogeymen of medieval Europe, the Vikings. They enriched themselves, and in time their innovations were adopted by others.

This is the magnificent lost history of a thousand years. It was on the shores of the North Sea where experimental science was born, where women first had the right to choose whom they married; there was the beginning of contemporary business transactions and the advent of the printed book. In The Edge of the World, Michael Pye draws on an astounding breadth of original source material to illuminate this fascinating region during a pivotal era in world history. He won various prizes in Modern History at Oxford before working as a journalist, columnist, and broadcaster in London and New York. He now divides his time between London and rural Portugal. Table of Contents Introduction 1 1 The invention of money 27 2 The book trade 48 3 Making enemies 69 4 Settling 96 5 Fashion 6 Writing the law 7 Overseeing nature 8 Science and money 9 Dealers rule 10 Love and capital 11 The plague laws 12 The city and the world References Acknowledgements Index Related Searches. Nobody asked questions, nobody demanded money. Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most Villagers lied, covered up, procrastinated, and concealed, but most importantly they welcomed. This is the story of an isolated community in the upper reaches of the Loire Valley that conspired to save the lives of View Product. A Rope from the Sky: The Making and. The birth of South Sudan was celebrated world-wide, a triumph acclaimed not only by its long-oppressed people, but by three presidents and millions Of necessity, we simplify. The Romans gave us paved roads and running water. Monasteries preserved knowledge. Humanism and three-point perspective came out of the Italian Renaissance. This bias, he says, has much to do with the kind of documentary information that was preserved, and with the people who preserved it. The impulse to get beyond the standard texts leads Pye to compile an exuberant amalgam of sources: Angle and Saxon, archaeological and scatological. Since much of this is below the level of recorded history, neglected or demonized by official narratives, he has to pull and tweak his material. Pye follows in the wake of a number of academic historians, many from the parts of Europe he writes about, but the synthesis and presentation are all his own. They are usefully, and often delightfully, jarring. My high hopes for this book were quickly dashed. A review that I read claimed Pye had written an integrated history of the North Sea, crossing national boundaries to show how the region fit together as a unit. As an English historian who knows little of other North Sea countries, that sounded amazing. In practice, however, Pye's work leaves much to be desired. His thesis is that the banks of the North Sea were responsible for the birth of modernity, spawning a number of ideas that have become in My high hopes for this book were quickly dashed. His thesis is that the banks of the North Sea were responsible for the birth of modernity, spawning a number of ideas that have become integral to the modern world. Yet his argument leaves much to be desired. There seems to be a relative chronological progression across the book, but Pye's contextualization of the events he discusses is poor, so I found myself often losing track of time and place. When he did contextualize, it was clear that he was often blurring significant geographical and chronological distances in order to make his points. I was particularly frustrated with his chapter on women, which used examples from across several hundred years to claim that gender relationships were becoming more modern, but he neglects to present a point of comparison to begin with - more modern than what? Overall, I saw an unfortunate cherry-picking trend throughout his argument that served to weaken his points considerably. Pye came into this work with preconceived ideas about what was "modern," and scanned his sources most of which were secondary works until he found something that resembled them however superficially in the past. As a medieval historian, I was also put off by Pye's premise. He claims to be redeeming the "Dark Ages" by pointing out its modern features. First of all, the term "Dark Ages," while marketable, is extremely problematic. Even more so is the period Pye uses this label for, which seems to date from the sixth or seventh century to the seventeenth. Even more unfortunate, however, is how he ends the book, implying that these "modern" elements were the only worthwhile things to come out of this wide-ranging historical period. Pye seems to see history as a progression toward the modern, an idea that went out of fashion in the early twentieth century along with imperialism and colonialism. Do the medieval and early modern periods have nothing to teach us on their own? Were their ideas and values of no merit? By dismissing this significant span of time, Pye joins a long tradition of scholarship including that of the Italian Renaissance - the other "birth of the modern" that he pits himself against who have rejected the Middle Ages because it did not appeal to them. Full of information It's an informational book, without the literary zest that makes some non-fiction absorbing. Nonetheless, the information chosen and the chronology draws my interest, and makes it above merely informational. Although I didn't want to finish it at first, it drew me in. May 01, Stefaan Van ryssen rated it it was amazing. Enlightening and fresh view on the development of the UK, the low countries, Scandinavia and a bit further, Greenland, Iceland, the first norse or viking settlements in nowadays Canada etc. Clear, well supported with arguments and references. Not for the academic historian but at an academic level for the lay and the interested. I liked the parts on the Vikings most. These brave people have a bad reputation, but that cannot be deserved unless one disregards their incredible contributions to trade Enlightening and fresh view on the development of the UK, the low countries, Scandinavia and a bit further, Greenland, Iceland, the first norse or viking settlements in nowadays Canada etc. These brave people have a bad reputation, but that cannot be deserved unless one disregards their incredible contributions to trade and civilisation. It's a damned shame they turned christian and lost all the nice traits of their society, e. Dec 25, Veronica rated it it was amazing. There were violent winds tearing down leaves and branches. Sand drifts and smothers, water breaks into the land…sudden storms like the night of the red moon take a whole harvest and leave hunger behind. Jan 02, Eric Timar rated it did not like it. The subject matter of this book really appealed to me, and I hate to sound like a dullard who wants his history books to be just "one damned fact after another," but for me this book was too much anecdote and not enough big picture overview. I think a good book like this needs both. Feb 22, Nikhil Shah rated it it was amazing. It was easy for Scandinavians to be in York, Frisians in Ipswich, Saxons in London, and the fact was so unremarkable that it is hardly recorded. That a party whose main promise is "If you think in terms of the time it takes to get to places, then Bergen in Norway is closer [to Ipswich] than York in England That a party whose main promise is to turn its back on Europe is strongest on that coast which has historically been our most cosmopolitan, the embarking-point for goods, ideas and genes from across the North Sea and beyond. After reading this fantastic book, my suspicion is that the Brits' idea of Europe is unduly shaped by holidays in the sun. If you are looking for a relaxing time, then it's hard to beat Spain, France and Greece. If, however, you are looking for cultural similarity and a sense that Britain is part of some broader European tradition, you probably won't find it south of the wine line. That there is a second European strand of civilisation which is often marginalised in the Roman-centric narrative of our continent. One which centres on the North Sea; one which was shaped by Frisians, Vikings, the Hansa, the Dutch and the English; one which did not undergo a 'dark age' while waiting for the Italian renaissance, but which was busy shaping the world according to its own needs; one which discovered America centuries before Columbus; one which gave rise to free trade, pensions, insurance, stock exchanges and many other ideas we now arrogantly think of as "Anglo-Saxon". I remember our history lessons at school as being extremely Anglocentric. The Armada came out of nowhere and returned, defeated, to nowhere, without any real understanding of the continent-wide religious fervour that drove it. William of Orange was a Dutch prince who liberated the English from Stuart tyranny. Why did we ask a Dutchman to be king? Who was King Cnut, apart from having a funny name and some funny ideas about the sea? One small way of righting this Anglocentrism is to read Pye's description of the life of Harald Hardrada. Famous in Britain as the Viking who cause King Harold a spot of bother before William the Conqueror landed, Pye illuminates his prior history as a rejected second son, commander of the Byzantine Varangian guard, military exploits across the Middle East, daring naval escape from Constantinople, return to claim a Norwegian throne before then setting out to England for his final expedition. If that doesn't make you more curious about the other Europeans who wandered occasionally onto our national stage, I don't know what will. More seriously, the book does a great job of positioning Britain as part of an international culture with fluid national identities. The South has always shouted louder about the idea of Europe, which has in turn fed the Euroscepticism of northerners. If people from Grimsby and Margate thought of Antwerp, Hamburg or Bergen when they thought of "Europe", they might actually feel more kinship and solidarity towards it. Unfortunately, until Scandinavia has better weather and weaker currencies, we might be stuck with it. Aug 05, Charles J rated it really liked it. And the book is more a series of cultural anecdotes grouped by topic than a fully-synthesized cultural history. So the book fails in its stated goal. But it succeeds in being very, very interesting. Instead of buying into the common but false notion that medieval Europeans were brutish and stupid, Pye richly elaborates the lives of people of the time, which were in many ways not that different from ours. His basic framework is to cover a variety of topics, from early trade and warfare after the end of the Roman Empire, to fashion, to later scientific developments, to engineering projects to control nature, and finally to the rise of law, universities and cities. Pye also attempts to weave recurring themes through these topics, notably the emergence of money and its translation into its modern forms and uses, and the role and limitations of various forms of social control. He covers three basic peoples and times: the Frisians, from A. Judging from the notes, Pye has actually done a lot of research. This is not simply a popularization summary like so many cultural histories. He seems very familiar not only with famous sources like Bede, but many other sources, including academic periodicals and truly narrow areas e. We could probably use a recurrence of this practice, or could if people still went to confession. Another example is that since letters were unreliable at best, merchants sent copies of their previous letter with each fresh one. Pye does an excellent job of describing the development of modern law from a stew of canon law, private law, public law, customary law, and Church law. One interesting aspect of this development was the ordeal system of trial. Pye does not discuss its rise and fall not in the simplistic way it is usually discussed, as a sign of the stupidity and barbarism both of people and Church. Rather, he shows how in close-knit, near-pagan communities without written, universal law or central government it made a type of sense, and how the Church, with its universal law based in Roman law, always strongly disapproved and finally stamped out the ordeal system. Pye gets into a little bit of trouble, or potential reader dissatisfaction, when he tries to shoehorn his pet ideas and themes into the narrative. For example, he talks at length about the Black Death—then repeatedly tries to analogize its impact on government and social control to that of Islamic terrorism. But Pye wants to seem relevant to today, which here is a mistake, and he wants to expand on his theme of social control. Even today, or perhaps even more today, control is the theme of those who push more government, as can be seen from the many forms of control that are pushed by those with power, ranging from forced celebration of sexual deviancy to the desire to control and regulate the entire world under the guise of stopping global warming. Not that Pye talks about these things—he sticks to his own topics. In any book like this, where thousands of facts are accumulated, one is bound to encounter head scratchers. It is true, and Pye implies this but does not draw the contrast, that as with most northern European women, they had vastly more rights than those women had in southern Europe, and infinitely more rights than women in the Muslim world—a commonplace complaint of Muslims during the Crusades was that the Franks let their women tell them what to do and allowed their women to not only come into the streets by themselves, but then to publicly berate their husbands for their failings. But all European learned men knew, since the time of the Greeks which knowledge did not disappear that the Earth was a sphere as did Columbus. In any case, these are small faults in a book that covers so much ground, and is well worth reading to enhance appreciation for medieval Europe, as well as to give the reader factoids to impress his doubtless irritated friends. Jul 13, Johan rated it it was ok. For reasons stated in other reviews this book is a very weak narrative with rambling arguments and unclear timelines. I finished it nevertheless, it did not improve. I read the Dutch version which contains bad translations and errors. Overall a disappointment. I rather enjoyed this book, while some have stated that the writing can be a bit ponderous I didn't really find this but I am used to reading some quite dense texts so maybe that has an effect, this book will increase your knowledge of the early to late middle ages but it is probably advisable that you have a general knowledge of what was going on regarding religious and political matters otherwise you may find yourself a bit lost. Disjointed and meandering. An extremely tedious read. Thematic topics are covered in each chapter, so there isn't really a chronological story. Even the thematic topics aren't covered properly. Just a whole bunch of little stories that doesn't actually tell you anything. The author doesn't really make his arguments properly and the reader is left guessing how the sometimes interesting stories relate to "How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are". A very disappointing book. Addendum: My 89 year old gra Disjointed and meandering. Addendum: My 89 year old grandmother liked the book. View 2 comments. I read about this book in an Economist review in - and unfortunately this disjointed account of the North Sea read: the Netherlands did not meet my expectations or, in my view, coherently address the thesis implied in its title. This is a classic example of an author missing the forest for the trees- Pye gets bogged down by local anecdotes that for him may fit into a larger narrative, but for a reader not familiar with the historical context provides nothing but a muddled and isolated, if I read about this book in an Economist review in - and unfortunately this disjointed account of the North Sea read: the Netherlands did not meet my expectations or, in my view, coherently address the thesis implied in its title.

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