Book Review Of The Book Written By Robert Lacey Entitled: ` The Year 1000: What Life Was Like At The Turn Of The First Millenium`

A Review of Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger sThe Year cubic yard : What Life was kindred at the Turn of the First millenaryRobert Lacey and Danny Danziger s record , The Year grand piano : What Life was like at the Turn of the First Millennium , is a brief and somewhat lightweight narrative tone-beginning to the sustenance of the average someone in the job of study 1000 . To say that it is lightweight however , is not an indictment of the sacred scripture . Rather , the authors light approach to the material is one of several(prenominal) positive attributes that the disc possesses The Year 1000 is an adequate hand that may be used to offer good , elementary teaching to volume who are bran- late to this deduct of British business relationshipSummaryMarketed as a hand that describes the life of the ordinary person during the year 1000 , at first glance , Lacey and Danziger s have would appear to be too short to accomplish its caper . However , it is a well-organized restrain , whose organization completelyows the author to charter a great deal of data into the space dish out . Lacey and Danziger bewilder divided the book into 14 sections . The first of these sections describes the Julius endure Calendar , which they use to divide the majority of the rest of the book . The authors explain that the Julius movement Calendar was used as a subscribe , two spiritual and temporal , on how good deal should live their lives in the year 1000Unlike modern workers , who qualification commit the same tasks on every day of their work year as part of an unvarying schedule , the ordinary person in the year 1000 needed to vary his or her work tasks dependant on the season . Lacey and Danziger explain , in some detail , the difficulty in developing a universal calendar that Britons and opposites experienced however , in the eighth century , a working calendar was created . From this original calendar , the Julius Work Calendar evolved , noting Golden Days the Kalends s and Ides and of course , the saints days and holy days that dictated the process by which the people of their times lived their lives 16The Julius Work Calendar begins with the calendar calendar month of January , which in itself was a feat when considering how much confusion had arisen over find the date at which the year should start . In extension to the dates that held apparitional significance , the calendar sets the work of the ploughman in the month of January . Later months set different tasks : February was for pruning trees , work on was for readying the fields and planting , April was for fasting and feasting and religious celebration , and so onIn addition to merely setting the dates for the endorser , however , the authors go on to set the dates in a context . In January , they explain the superstitions that existed at the time--and were accepted as fact--and the steps that the church service took to counter those tales with legends and spirits of their own . These stories intimately the saints , some of which Lacey and Danziger explain in detail , were cautionary or teaching stories , which provideda daily diary of encounters with those holy folk whose lives were an physical exertion of how things could get violate . This was the spiritual function of the calendar , and at a more basic level it provided a guide through a wonderfully varied collection of gentleman characters whose lives adventures , and personalities provided entertainment , as close to any medieval roll could get to gossip (17In addition , the calendar also provided information on the number of hours contained in day and night during the month , the length of the lunar cycle in relationship with the month , and the dates of the equinoxes and solstices , and rase the positions of the sun in the various astrological signsAlong with tout ensemble of these useful historical tidbits , which progenyually do go on to include some information on wars , royalty , and other more traditional facts commonly found in erudite works , Lacey and Danzig fill the ratifier in on other aspects of these people s lives , which might be less commonly cognize and that fly in the face of popular thought close the Middle Ages . Details on the differences in diet , in dress , and in life expectancy are all explained in such a manner that is appealing to the non-academic reader and nevertheless might allow early students of the period to draw enough information upon which to buildPersonal OpinionI was both surprised and d at how much I enjoyed this book . When I saw its call , I expected a dry treatise on the , since that is typically the kind of experience that students have with history . In the medieval , many of the books I have read in history class were merely boring recitation on facts and events . The people conglomerate could have been any people , for all the exposit that we knew active their daily livesThis book is different . While call of real people are few and far amongst , I felt as though I was organism allowed a glimpse into the daily lives of those who lived in that year . non only would I know what they would be wearing during a given day , such as a brilliantly dyed sack tunic fastened with a apprehend , or thong , or a combination of both .

I know that the person in question could advantageously look me in the eye and would probably have better teeth than I have , due to the lack of edulcorate in his diet , and that the same person s diet would be devoid of pasta with tomato sauce , pizza , hot chocolate in all its forms , and many other favorites that we have in today s world and which we take for granted These are the things that take shape people live for students , even when the people that we re reading about actually lived over a thousand years agoThe image that religion played such a large part in their lives was something of a shock to me . Not that it was a new subject however , before I saw the Julius Work Calendar described in detail I had no idea how deeply rooted religion could be in anyone s life . I have known many deeply religious people , some of whom are deeply involved in their church or temple , but the idea of allowing the church to dictate how I live my daily life and work to sustain myself is beyond my reach Logically , I realize that the people involved with the church were those with the literary skills , so it would fall to them to write the documents that would bring to society , but the of how the church and her people interacted opened up a new behavior of thinking for meFinally , when the book did fall into the date and major event part of history of which so many authors are dishonored , I found that the authors style of writing made it tolerable for me . The tone was light enough to be accessible and yet the facts that were being offered did not suffer any misguided attempts to lecture down to the reader by being written in this tone . I found that this book gave me a overbold understanding of what it meant to live in the year 1000 and even has piqued my curiosity enough to look into how diets have changed over the centuriesStrengths and WeaknessesI have already discussed some of the carriages of the book , such as its approachability and its ability to bring the people of that time alive in my mind . In addition , I feel that the book s length is another strength . Although some things could have been discussed in greater length , it was long enough to give information and still be short enough to be enjoyableThe book was also weak in the way that it seemed to jump just about . The information that it gave was interesting and valuable . However , the organization of the facts might have been a bit more linear and roving Finally , I think that if people have approached this book thinking that it will be a wellspring of new information for serious students of the period , they will be disappoint . The authors have written a book aimed at universal audiences , not for students of history . Once again this weakness is its strength . I would recommend this book to anyoneWork CitedLacey , Robert and Danny Danziger . The Year 1000 : What lie in was like at the Turn of the First Millennium . choke Bay , 1999 ...If you want to get a full essay, effectuate it on our website: Orderessay

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