The Middle Ages: Everyday Life in Medieval Europe Hardcover – November 5, 2013 by Jeffrey L. Singman (Sterling)

This is a 300-age hardbound book filled with dozens of color as well as B&W illustrations. Its subject matter is how ordinary people, especially peasants carried out their lives in northern Europe in the High Middle Ages (1100 to 1300). The author happens to be an enthusiastic participant in the emerging "living history" movement in which people staff historical sites and reenact period dress, speech and customs. It is this immersion in the details of ordinary life that give the author such perspective on what it felt like to be a peasant living in a small village in England in, let us say, 1200.
There is very little focus on major historical events of the High Middle Ages. There is very little about the kings and their battles or the popes and their disputes. Instead the focus stays on the typical peasant, who accounted for about 98% of the population of the time. We learn exactly what their houses were like - what their beds were like..how they used privies and chamber pots, what they used in lieu of toilet paper. We learn that they usually ate two meals a day, and we learn what they ate. We learn about the family systems, and customs on inheriting property (even for a dying serf who was bound to the local lord). We learn about crime and punishment. We get an insight into their sense of time and place.

I love the book because I am doing research on my unnamed ancestors who were all peasants in Germany and England, and I want to know more about their daily lives. The book will be a feast for anyone interested in "everyday life" of this period. I am not a professional historian, but I have probably read at least a dozen books on this period, and this was far and away my most helpful sources on "everyday life."

Who won't like this book? I suppose it is not suitable for someone who wants to know about the major historical turning points of this period - such as the impact of the Magna Carta, and the impact of Henry II and his reign in early England or the description of the Crusades beginning in 1095.

I'll share one example: The author takes us inside the head of a medieval peasant to understand his/her sense of time and place. There were no clocks and there were no calendars and they could not read in any case. So, time was marked by Sundays and the traditional seven day week. On Sunday you went to church and rested. The day began at sunrise and ended at sunset so in some latitudes the day's length varied from 8 hours to 16 hours depending upon the season. Because of the lack of clocks, the peasant didn't describe something as "It took 20 minutes." Instead she said, "It took about as long as it takes me to walk a mile." The new year did not begin on January 1, and there probably was little reference to the months. Instead the year started on Christmas or on Easter or the feast of the Annunciation. It varied by region and changed in different periods. The progression of the year was related to the holy days of the Church calendar. Most interesting, the peasants did not regard themselves as living in the year of 1160 but rather English peasants described it as "the sixth year of the reign of Henry II." If this sort of thing catches your fancy, you will feast on this rich book.
Read less