Reviews for Women in Dark Age and Early Medieval Europe c.500-1200

The average rating for Women in Dark Age and Early Medieval Europe c.500-1200 based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-03-16 00:00:00 James Dunevent I picked up this rather slim introductory volume to help me improve my knowledge of continental women's history, and to perhaps highlight some possible areas of comparison, before I start in on my own thesis. (I focus much more on Gaelic/Anglo-Irish women's history). As straight women's history it's fine, if lacking in much analysis, and the opening chapter on the more recent historiography was useful in pointing me towards some other texts that might help me. There were parts of the rest of it which irritated me a lot, though. The author seems to take a dim view of gender--as opposed to women's--history, and between that and certain rather problematic terminology she uses to describe issues of ethnicity ("the [Anglo-Saxons] from the start bred from women of the dominated race" stated by page five? This you're writing in 2007? Seriously?) and gender (in her conclusion, she talks about the gendered disadvantages faced by women being framed by medieval contemporaries as being seen as "protective and for the women's good, as it often was." Seriously?), she strikes me as an unrepentant second-waver. Which would be why I wouldn't advocate giving this as a textbook to undergrads without a lot of disclaiming Post It notes stuck all over it.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-11-26 00:00:00 David Granatell The author obviously knows much more about latin language based areas of Europe. Made a few glaring errors about Norse studies and a wonky assertion about osteology (with no reference), but it was a decent overview.