William the Conqueror: The Norman Impact Upon England (Volume 1) (English Monarchs Series)

Sure, it's like, forty years old, but it still sets the standard in William the Conqueror scholarship. Here are answers, or at least well-phrased hedges about the most important questions surrounding William's life and conquests: Did William introduce feudalism to England or adapt existing social structures? Was his victory in the Battle of Hastings attributable more to the exhaustion of the English after fighting off the Norwegians or more to William's superior conquest? and so forth. Douglas has read the primary sources in English and French (and Latin, and Italian, etc), he has read the secondary sources, he has, in short, done his homework. I mean, how many books have you read that have quotes from reviewers on the back that say, "the author has set about to self conciously create a masterpiece on the subject... and he has succeded." The funny thing about this book is that even though it is supremely scholarly, it is also suitable for the general reader. Provided: that reader has either taken an undergraduate course in Midevial history or has done reading on his/her own on the subject. If you only read one book before this one I would recommend either Feudal Society vol. I by Bloch or the Making of the Middle Ages by Southern.

If you are interested in the history of Norman England, or the impact the invasion of 1066 had on England (and the world!), this is the book for you. While not the 'easiest' reading, this is definitely a book for those seeking details and full accounts of the life and times of the one known by his contemporaries as 'William the Bastard'. I would rank this book right up there with Dungeon, Fire, and Sword on like-ability! This book should be on every medieval historian's bookshelf!

If you are interested in the Norman history or in the Norman impact upon England or just simply in a very exciting ruler of the eleventh century, this is a must read. The book depicts the complex and vivid life of the eleventh century through the life of one of the greatest monarchs of the eleventh century. I was especially interested in the first two sections of the book: The Young Duke and The Duke in his Duchy. In this chapters you can feel the pulse of the life of this era. It is a very well researched book. Whenever you feel that there is a gap in the story it is instantly filled by the excellent footnotes or by the appendixes. Every question of mine, which were raised out of my mind reading the book, were answered within few pages. The excellent description of the battles is another adventage of the book. Anyway you can say thousands of words boasting this book but you had better read it. It is a real MASTERPIECE with real capital letters.

David C. Douglas provides a scholarly analysis of the period leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. He includes much detail on the complex kinship and political relationsips of the Norman, English and Scandinavian nobility of the period in both France and England. Gives a clear picture of the influence of William's policies and achievements on England after the conquest. Useful for Geneaologists and Historians. If you are looking for the details, this is the book.

There is history written in the popular mode, and there is history written in the scholarly mode. David Howarth's "1066" is a fine example of the former--- wrong on many small details, but engaging, thought-provoking in its conjectural recreations of the personalities of men long dead. But Howarth's book suffers from some of the inherent bias of popular history: it pleads the case of the oppressed Saxons and fancifully fleshes out those things for which we lack concrete evidence, often to support the author's own overarching vision of these events. David C. Douglas is not a prejudicial dilettante. He is one of those hard-nosed, dust-covered, meticulous, and magnificent English historians with the fortitude and knowledge to plumb countless ancient charters and other such arcana in pursuit of fact; in the hall of modern historians, he is in the brilliant company of A.L. Poole, R.W. Southern, Frank M. Stenton, K.B. McFarlane, and other such greats. His book on William is not a character study but a series of tautly-woven analyses of evidence. The problems and contradictions of these limited materials are discussed in the text, in the footnotes, in the copious appendices; and only once a myriad of possible readings of a given event has been mentioned (and referenced, should the reader wish to seek a cogent explication of a contrary thesis) does Douglas offer his own view of the matter. This book is dense, difficult, slow, and laborious, but its interest is truth, understanding, and genuine illumination: it is not a flight of fancy but a History. People like this preserve the human past for the good of the human present and future. It is to the slow and patient scholar that we owe so much of what we actually know.The rest of Douglas' oeuvre is out of print. How sad this is for the state of our knowledge on these subjects! Read Howarth and other practitioners of "popular history," that lesser art, for enjoyment, or for an imaginative return to the sights and smells of a lost time. But buy and read this book, and those like it, to be elevated to a greater state of understanding. "William the Conqueror" is a masterpiece.