The only other objection that I had was that some of the attitides and interpretations of the authors did seem a little outdated (or else I simply did not agree with some of them), but since the book was first published in the 1970s this is probably to be expected. We learn what lords and serfs alike would have worn, eaten, and done for leisure, and of the. The chapters on Law and Order in the village, and 'The Parish' were particularly good, and the latter I especially enjoyed, and also liked the way that it made the subject seem far less complicated. The Gieses take us through the full cycle of a medieval year, dictated by the rhythms of the harvest. Thankfully though, the book becomes a little more lively after the first 60 pages or so and the authors were back on form with thier informative and engaging historical narrative. As a history student I shoud be more used to dry academic writing, but this was not a textbook and I found the dry recounting of facts and figures rather off putting in work of popular history. The main reason was that the first part of the book seemed to me very dull, tedious and rather slow. Although I am getting to like these authors more, I confess I did not like this book as much as their other book 'Life in a Medieval Castle' which I read last year. Medieval people living in a medieval village including peasants had a reasonable diet that included bread, fruit, vegetables, porridge and stew, this was usually accompanied by a drink of water and beer.
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