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Historical The Debate on the Norman Conquest by Marjorie Chibnall $79.95 / Manchester Univ. Press / 1999 The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 has often been called the great turning-point in the history of England; certainly the date is as readily identifiable to English schoolchilren as 1492 is to Americans. In this concise but thorough book, Marjorie Chibnall reviews the scholarship and thinking on this event over the past millennium, from the sources of the history of the Norman Conquest to the way these sources have been interpreted. Chibnall closely exemines 20th-century thinking concerning the impat of the Norman Conquest on political, economic, social, and religious structures, succinctly describing influences on the modern dialectic and trends in current scholarship. In the first four chapters, Chibnall reviews the historiography of the Norman Conquest, from the Middle Ages through the 19th century. At first, the Conquest was interpreted according to which side you were on and involved the theory of legitimacy. But during the period from the Reformation to the 1660s the Norman Conquest was viewed in more brutal terms while 19th-century historians saw the Coquest as the establishment of an oppressive feudal system on freedom-loving Saxons. (Indeed, it was only during this period that the term "feudalism" cam into being.) The final six chapters are devoted to treds and revisions of 20th-century histories of the Norman Conquest. She provides clear explanations of the issues involved in modern and contemporary scholarship, from the new thoughts on feudalism and lordship to law, empire, the church, and the economy. If nothing else, The Debate on the Norman Conquest gives a strong sense of how hisory is not merely something that occured long ago. --Charles Rammelkamp

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