The Year 1000 : What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: This book will be of interest more for the general reader, or those with a general interest in the Medieval period. It is not a work of history, rather investigative journalism; using the Julius Work Calander--one of the very few documents surviving from this period that gives an indication of day-to-day life in England c. 1000--the authors interviewed historians and archeologists in order to piece together a month-by-month account of what life was like in the year 1000. Overall, the book is pretty good, but those who have studied the period will probably find nothing new here.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting read
Review: This book will be of interest more for the general reader, or those with a general interest in the Medieval period. It is not a work of history, rather investigative journalism; using the Julius Work Calander--one of the very few documents surviving from this period that gives an indication of day-to-day life in England c. 1000--the authors interviewed historians and archeologists in order to piece together a month-by-month account of what life was like in the year 1000. Overall, the book is pretty good, but those who have studied the period will probably find nothing new here.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Enlighting
Review: Truely enjoyed reading this book. Easy and fun read. Full of all sorts of interesting facts - like which month was the most likely for starvation to be a problem. Answer may surprize some. If you like history you'll like this book. However, this is not a novel. Instead it is a descriptive narrative written in a lite, intereting manner.

Rating:
Summary: "when the year DCCCCLXXXXViIIIJ became a simple M"
Review: What fun to romp in the year 1000 led by these authors. They weave a plethora of scholarly information into a witty and enchanting tale. Amazingly, in just 200 pages they paint a rich and engaging portrait with writing that is dense yet never labored, and pithy yet never pedantic.

An inherent feature of our minds is that we quickly loose a sense of perspective in as little as two decades. So, it was interesting -- with our current millennium wrapped in despair from time to time - to read, "And lo! What other thing is clear and evident in all these events, if not the anger of God?" The authors gently nudge throughout to liberate us from what C.S. Lewis called the "snobbery of chronology" that assumes our superiority of character is assured by virtue of us being more recently arrived on the scene.

The compassion and empathy these authors take in presenting life 1000 years ago, is for me best captured in their closing sentence: "But weather we today display more wisdom or common humanity is an open question, and as we look back to discover how people coped with 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 humor, and philosophy."

In working to build a life where we thrive both personally and professionally, it is always a good thing to take your mind out of your zone, out of your box, and to ponder how are things change while they also remain the same. This book offers such a journey.