The Year 1000 What Life Was Like At the Turn of the First Millennium

This little book offers a wealth of information for anyone needing a short but comprehensive overview of the year 1000 for primarily England. Lots of good information.

The turn of the millennium (the last millennium, that is) in England was an interesting world to behold -- the country was struggling toward unity, but still wary of invaders from across the various seas (an invasion trend that would stop less than 100 years after the turn of the millennium). The typical Englishman was well-fed, but the kinds of food might astound modern readers; when the people got indigestion back then, medical treatments were even more bizarre. Into the world, Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger venture with humour and insight. Lacey and Danziger, established writers in related topics, have traced a journey through history by tracing the typical life during a year at the turn of the year 1000, through the Julius Work Calendar, on reserve at the British Library, lost for a time due to miscategorisation. The authors (Lacey and Danziger) makes use of this interesting framework of month-by-month chronicling to develop the details of daily life and work in England in the year 1000. The different months take the paradigm for different topics -- February looks at geography; August looks at medicine (and the frequency of flies); November looks at the issues of gender relationships. Among the fascinating facts that come out in the analysis are the kinds of cyclical patterns that occur in history --Lacey and Danziger point out that under Canute, an unfaithful wife would meet with a horrible fate, but that legislation died with him, until the Commonwealth period several hundred years later, when it would be revived. The authors do not stick exclusively to English shores -- they discuss the general world situation, as it would impact English development. Lacey and Danziger close the year and discussion with the figure of Gerbert, who would become pope Sylvester II, having been the scholar of note under the Ottos, successors of Charlemagne. His strange innovations, like prefering Arabic numbers (1, 2, 3, etc.) to Roman numerals, introducing 'exotic' machines like an abacus to the world made him suspect -- however, Lacey and Danziger refer to him as the first millennium's Bill Gates, revolutionising computational power for good and forever. Lacey and Danziger warn against the 'snobbery of chronology', as C.S. Lewis terms it -- we don't necessarily know better or live better than our ancestors, and sometimes our distorted views of the past much be called into check. For example, it is commonly held that people today are taller than people in the past; while this trend is true over the past several generations, prior to that, it is not true -- the average Englishman today is only slightly taller than the average Englishman of the year 1000. From riddles and games for a dark and stormy night (playing cards would not be invented for several hundred years) to the origins of serfdom and family life, this is a fascinating text.

If you are into history and accounts of life before the Industrial Revolution then you'll find this an interesting read. This is not a novel. It is full of details of life 1000 years ago. I found it fascinating and a quick read.

How often do we lump the year 1000 into "back then" without being able to distinguish it from 800 or 1300? This book makes you feel like you're there, learning about daily life, what motivated people, what the hardships were ... Did you know that people in 1000 were as tall as we are today? Remember, this was before the Black Plague. It is fascinating and well organized!

As a radio talk show host, I receive hundreds of books every year. This book is a keeper! Compelling, human, informative. Downright riveting. Danziger and Lacey use one relic from the year 1020 as a springboard for a very enlightening look at life at the turning of the last millenium. Written by guys who "do" history my way. Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! One negative: I WANT MORE! Tom Bauerle, WGR, Buffalo, NY (and BA in history, SUNY Buffalo)