"Based on the author’s physical retracing of paths taken by King William I's Domesday Book agents, this presents an exhilaratingly fresh take on eleventh-century England."
“To penetrate [the Domesday Book’s] hidden pathways, I had to explore its physical realities, its vills and manors, hundreds and shires, fields, woods and pastures, rivers and mill races; meet the latter-day counterparts of its radknights, reeves, cottars, burgesses and ceapmen. And I had to do it on foot”. Such is the compelling context of Max Adams’ extraordinarily ambitious, excellently-realised Domesday, a work that saw him cover close to 1000 miles while following in the footsteps of William I’s Domesday Book surveyors in order to personally survey the landscapes, and assess the legacies of this period.
Drawing on archaeology, contemporaneous chronicles, historical geography, and his present-day in-the-field analysis, Adams uses the Domesday Book as his travel guide. Through his journey, all aspects of life are brought to life, both in the context of the historic period, and as a result of the author’s encounters with modern counterparts of his historic subjects of study.
Intimate, exhaustive, and unique in the way it threads a tapestry between past and present, not only does Domesday provide fascinating detail on many aspects of life in eleventh-century England, but it’s also enlightening on the continued legacies of this period on the physical English landscape, and the English psyche. As such, it comes heartily recommended for all who have a keen interest in British social history, and the very processes used to understand the past.
The Domesday Book describes the furniture of a culture and its economy - the legacy of Anglo-Saxon England.
| Primary Genre | History |
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The Domesday Book describes the furniture of a culture and its economy - the legacy of Anglo-Saxon England.When King William I sent his agents to survey every shire in England, he asked them to list his holdings and calculate what was owed to him. The manuscript record of the resulting 'Great Survey' is not just a tax record, but a unique window onto the structure of English administration and economy before and immediately after the Norman Conquest: its shires and hundreds, acres, hides and townships.In Domesday, Max Adams retreads the path taken in 1085 by King William I's agents, taking us on foot through the very sites covered by one of the most iconic documents of English history.
Domesday features in the following genres: Non-Fiction Books of the Month, Star Books, History, Lifestyle, Hobbies and Leisure, Travel, Ancient history, Historical geography, Travel writing, History and Archaeology, Ancient history, History: specific events and topics, Historical geography, Travel writing
Hardback. £22.50, down from the £25.00 cover price. In Stock.
Domesday was written by Max Adams and published by Apollo an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Domesday has 464 pages
£22.50, reduced from £25.00. In Stock.
