Feudal Society

"This is just a book I’ve always loved. I read it as a young man. It is also making sense out of a very complicated period—the medieval period. This translation dates from 1961 but the book was written in the 1930s, because Marc Bloch was a member of the French Resistance and he didn’t survive the war. “I bought it well over fifty years ago. It’s just a joy forever” It’s an older book but, again, it’s taking a mass of information that has no shape and tries to put shape on it. In contrast to Hicks—where it’s an economist trying to be very economic and very briefly stating the essence of his theory—Marc Bloch is a historian who loves the details and goes into how everything fits together. In my own research, I’ve always remembered a phrase used by Marc Bloch. He’s trying to explain how he got things out of this very incomplete information in the medieval period and he says. ‘Now I must take you into my kitchen to explain how this was done.’ Just this image—of taking you into the kitchen to explain what he was doing, in the background, to make this sumptuous banquet that he’s put in front of us—has always struck me as the essence of what people like me do. Marc Bloch tried to make sense of the ancient world; I’ve tried, now, to make sense of the current word. I just love his very graceful phrasing of this, and so I love to go back into that book. When you asked me about my five favourite books, I just couldn’t resist putting that book on the list because I’ve known it—I bought it well over fifty years ago—and I’ve had it on my shelf and I go back into it. It’s just a joy forever. This interview took place by telephone on March 15th, 2017"