Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century

Duby's work was ground-breaking in the 1960s, but has now become outdated. That is not to say that his arguments and analyses have proven wrong or been supersceded. It is outdated simply because it has been incorporated into much more detailed and comprehensive accounts written in the last thirty years (particularly by Norman Pounds).That does not mean that this book is not worth reading. Duby's piece still provides a unique perspective. Although the work as a whole has been incorporated into much bigger books, no one has focused on the same characteristics that he has. Duby writes wonderfully on the gift and plunder economy, the importance of the medieval world-view to economic growth, and the change in technology. Duby's work is most valuable, however, for the image it creates. Duby follows in the French tradition of writing "impressionist histories." In this way Duby gives an excellent idea of what it was like to live in the early medieval period. In many ways The Early Growth of the European Economy is the perfect companion to Marc Bloch's Feudal Society.This book is still worth reading because of the focus it has and the impression it gives. At under three hundred pages, it is a quick read, and provides an excellent introduction to the topic.

Includes an excellent section on the medieval gift economy, something which many authors have relegated to anthropology of the developing world. He is one of the few to show the pattern of looting and giving--to knights, to God, to King--that solidified social relations and acted as the road to power in the old social order.

This is without doubt one of the best history books written in the twentieth century. A work of great depth and breadth, it shows a master historian at his best. The analysis is rich and complex; just about every page is rich with insight and often turns upside down some old conventional wisdom (cf., for but one example, his assessement of the positive role the Vikings had on the redistribution of wealth and on economic quickening in general in Europe). This is a veritable tour de force, and one that should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in medieval history. Of course, some material is dated, and on some topics the author changed his mind later on in his career, but that does not detract from the force and brilliance of this classic.

I am a medieval economic historian and I have found that Duby's interpretation of this period is one of careful scholarship in primary sources and a sophistication of outlook which transcends some of the sterility of the historiography of this period, particularly the debate over the Pirenne Thesis.If you want to begin to understand the economic history of this period and also would like to know where to start in looking deeper, I can recommend no better book than Duby's.