For 300 years separate and mutually uncomprehending English and French historiographies have confused the history of medieval aristocracy. Unpicking the basic assumptions behind both national traditions, this book explains them, reconciles them and offers entirely new ways to take the study of aristocracy forward in both England and France. The Birth of Nobility analyses the enormous international field of publications on the subject of medieval aristocracy, breaking it down into four key debates: noble conduct, noble lineage, noble class and noble power. Each issue is subjected to a thorough review by comparing current scholarship with what a vast range of historical source material actually says. It identifies the points of divergence in the national traditions of each of these debates and highlights where they have been mutually incomprehensible. For students studying medieval Europe.

For 300 years separate and mutually uncomprehending English and French historiographies have confused the history of medieval aristocracy. Unpicking the basic assumptions behind both national traditions, this book explains them, reconciles them and offers entirely new ways to take the study of aristocracy forward in both England and France. The Birth of Nobility analyses the enormous international field of publications on the subject of medieval aristocracy, breaking it down into four key debates: noble conduct, noble lineage, noble class and noble power. Each issue is subjected to a thorough review by comparing current scholarship with what a vast range of historical source material actually says. It identifies the points of divergence in the national traditions of each of these debates and highlights where they have been mutually incomprehensible. For students studying medieval Europe.

In this ground-breaking new study,Jacques Le Goff, arguably theleading medievalist of his generation, presents his view of theprimacy of the Middle Ages in the development of Europeanhistory. "[A] superb and necessary book. This provocative assessmentfrom a lifetime of scholarship might help us to place ourselves,not just territorially, but in that other precious element ofhistory: time." The Guardian "A book that never fails to be informative, readable andprovocative. Le Goff... has been the bravest and best of championsfor medieval history. This book... is in every sense aninspiration." BBC History Magazine Praised by prominent figures in Europe and history including:Rt Hon Christopher Patten, CH, Former Member of the EuropeanCommission, and Neil Kinnock, Vice-President, EuropeanCommission.

"In 1662 Pufendorf was appointed to the first modern professorship in natural law (at the University of Heidelberg). In 1670 he became professor of natural law at the University of Lund in Sweden. First published in 1672, this is his principle work and a landmark in the history of natural and international law. Beginning with a consideration of fundamental legal ideas and their various divisions, Pufendorf proceeded to a discussion of the validity of customs, the doctrines of necessity and innate human reason. The work is significant in part because it developed principles introduced by Grotius and Hobbes. Unlike Hobbes, Pufendorf argued that peace, not war, was the state of nature, and he proposed that international law was not restricted to Christendom." -- Lawbook Exchange.

One Story of Academia: Race Lines and the Rhetoric of Distinction through the Académie française explores how the word race was historically linked to kings and feudal lords as a sign of elite social distinction, and how the Académie française has embodied that type of distinction in France since its establishment in 1635. Meant to be an undeclared, scholarly, «mysterious» companion to the French monarchy, the Académie created a powerful attraction for the highest classes, inspiring critics of different stripes; considered to be the highest expression of Frenchness, it excluded different groups based on class, gender, race/ethnicity, religion, ideology, and nationality. The self-proclaimed heir to ancient Greek and Roman scholarship, the Académie also claims to represent Europe, the West, and even Humanity. However, as an academic institution, it has experienced «dialectical» arguments between traditional (feudal) elitism, and scholarly elitism as both sought to define French culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. «Trustees of taste» and promoters of purity, the Académiciens and their strong supporters followed the troubled evolution of the word race and of social distinction. Borrowing from inter-European ethnic issues and nationalism, subscribers to the growing «racial» distinction had the features of the colonized analyzed with the French, and by extension, European and Western sense of social distinction in mind. Consequently the colonized ended up at the lowest end of the social scale; in turn, this placement explained the application of European feudal norms of exploitation on the colonies and created the more controversial and dreaded concept of «racism». This book highlights how the significance of language in the French sense of race - as superiority - is at the heart of the Académie française.