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The F-Word, Page Eight

Sources and Suggested Reading

By , About.com Guide

This has been an extremely basic introduction to the feudalism problem. I urge you to explore the sources given here for a deeper understanding of the history of the feudalism construct and its current status among academics.

Reynolds, Susan, Fiefs and Vassals: The Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted. Oxford University Press, 1994, 544 pp.
A word of warning for the novice: this book is important and filled with useful information, but it was written by an academic for other academics. You may find it challenging reading.
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Little, Lester K. and Barbara H. Rosenwein, Editors, Debating the Middle Ages: Issues and Readings. Blackwell Publishers, 1998, 396 pp.
In addition to a copy of Brown's "Tyranny of a Construct," Debating the Middle Ages includes a helpful explanation of the status of the feudalism problem in an introduction by the editors (p. 107) and several other articles related to the subject.
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Bloch, Marc, and L. A. Manyon, translator, Feudal Society. University of Chicago Press, 1961, two volumes.
Originally circulated by Bloch among his colleagues in 1941, Feudal Society deliberately expanded the view of feudalism to encompass all of medieval society. Bloch's thesis was countered in the decades to come, and it's tempting to speculate whether he would have altered his viewpoint had he survived World War II.
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Ganshof, F. L., and Philip Grierson, translator, Feudalism. University of Toronto Press, 1996, 176 pp.
Originally published in 1944, Ganshof's clear exposition has long been the standard text on the subject. It is interesting to note that the Medieval Academy chose to reprint it as part of their MART series barely a year after Fiefs and Vassals was published, demonstrating the long, tortuous road academic reassessment has to follow.
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Pocock, J. G. A., The Ancient Constitution and the Feudal Law: A Study of English Historical Thought in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1987, 420pp.
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Maitland, F. W. The Constitutional History of England. Maitland Press, 2007, 568 pp.
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Online Resources

Review of Fiefs and Vassals
by Steven G. Lane at The Medieval Review

Two Reviews of Fiefs and Vassals
by Fred Cheyette in Speculum and Paul R. Hyams in Journal of Interdisciplinary History, placed online by Paul Halsall at his Medeival Sourcebook

Crisis? Collapse? Recovery?
Primary and secondary sources dealing with feudal and related matters, at Paul Halsall's Medieval Sourcebook

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