Formation Of England HB

During the post decade, the documentary sources on which any study of Anglo-Saxon England must be based have been re-examined and supplemented by archaeological and placename investigations, by comparative European studies, and by the application of contemporary economic and sociological perspectives. The result has been the questioning of long-held interpretations of, for example, the origin of the open-field system, the growth of urban centres, and the development of feudal tenure patterns. Professor Finberg has long been associated with this process of reinterpretation, through his outstanding topographical and documentary studies. In The Formation of England he presents his conclusions on the course of Anglo-Saxon political and social history, and challenges textbook orthodoxy on many points. Beginning with the emergence of the British kingdoms in the sixth century, Professor Finberg analyses the politics of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, the subsequent growth of Wessex, the Danish invasions and settlements, and the achievement of a securely based English monarchy under Edward the Confessor. Separate Chapters on 'The Social Structure in Early England', 'Alfreds England', and 'The Later Anglo-Saxon Landscape' set this political narrative within a clearer context than has been previously attempted. The Formation of England, with its combination of detailed scholarship and lucid general survey, makes attractive, even essential reading not only for scholars but for anyone interested in Englands past.