The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium An Englishman's World Book

An interesting and well-written journey back in time. Well-researched and organized based on the Julius Work Calendar, a time capsule of drawings that gives us hints about what life was like for ordinary folks more than 1,000 years ago. "What C.S. Lewis called the 'snobbery of chronology' encourages us to presume that just because we happen to have lived after our ancestors and can read books which give us some account of what happened to them, we must also know better than them. We certainly have more facts at our disposal. We have more wealth, both personal and national, better technology, and infinitely more skillful ways of preserving and extending our lives. But whether we today display more wisdom or common humanity is an open question, and as we look back to discover how people coped with the daily difficulties of existence a thousand years ago, we might also consider whether, in all our sophistication, we could meet the challenges of their world with the same fortitude, good humour and philosophy."