Customer Reviews (1)

buyerbeware
Most disappointed with "book" -- it was a poorly photocopied edition, bound with a plastic binder -- not even a good job at the copy shop.I expected at least a softbound book with a real cover for what I paid (and saw visually represented in the description.) When it says binding unknown, beware.This is simply a brief (40 approx) page report on very general quail habitat and cultivation -- much like a grad student thesis. I expected more information and text for the amount I paid. AsI said before, read the fine print and buyer beware -- I've learned my lesson. ... Read more

Book Description
Historians of premodern Europe often think in terms of 'small worlds': a series of regional societies functioning independently of each other. This -approach works well for isolated areas but is less obviously applicable to England, the most centralised country in Europe. How far England was centrally controlled and how far power in reality remained in the localities are key considerations in understanding English history both in the middle ages and after-wards.The essays in Regionalism and Revision all address these questions, both by analysing how the problem should be approached and by examining what the exercise of power involved in local terms. Did the gentry dominate local office by virtue of their intrinsic importance in their counties or were they dependent for the continuation of their power and wealth on the renewal of their commissions from the central government? How did magnates mediate influence at the centre on behalf of the localities, and how were they repaid for it? How did officials appointed by the crown, including sheriffs and JPs, react to having to impose unpopular burdens, such as purveyance, upon the counties? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good essay collection on the Wars of the Roses
This collection of ten previously published articles focuses on the later part of the Lancastrian-Yorkist wars, a period long regarded by historians as an era of serious social deterioration, ruled by a "troglodyte aristocracy" engaged in political gangsterism. Both sides in the Wars of the Roses were self-serving and it took Henry Tudor, founder of a new dynasty, to undertake the reconstruction of English society, restore public order and the Crown's purse, and suppress the evils of bastard feudalism. Lander questions most of these opinions, identifying royal propaganda on both sides and attempting to rehabilitate the quality of 15th century public life. Of most interest, I think, are the essays "Marriage and Politics in the Fifteenth Century: The Nevilles and the Wydevilles," "Attainder and Forfeiture, 1453 to 1509," and "Bonds, Coercion and Fear: Henry VII and the Peerage," all of which deal with the English aristocracy in a turbulent time. A very interesting appendix identifies those peers who actually took an active military part in the half-century under discussion, grouping them by family connections and noting how the lineup shifts with each accession of a new monarch. ... Read more