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David Crouch, The Birth of Nobility: Constructing Aristocracy in England and France 900-1300 (Harlow: Pearson Longman, 2005). xiii + 361 pp. ISBN 0-58236981-9. £19.99.
David Crouch in his foreword says that explaining medieval aristocracy to his students has taken him back to 'basic ideas' and to survey the 'historiographical wilderness' out of which those ideas have emerged. He will offer the reader 'a travelogue in history'. It is an accurate image in terms of the number of issues and personalities that come into view, but it gives a false impression of the energy and pace of...