The Dark One
Auror
Seems a bit of a generalisation for someone of your edification.
Name 748 boring nobles as compared with 99% of their obscure subjects.
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Name 748 boring nobles as compared with 99% of their obscure subjects.
xena
Troubadour
Just got The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Sir This
Sir That
Sir OtherThing
etc.
That's too easy.
Yes, it was an easy generalization. I claim the right of the professional to be lackadaisical about one's own field. <g> I prefer looking at the history of common folk. It's much tougher to get to that, and maybe I like the challenge. Not sure. And sometimes I just like to toss the ball from half court to see if it goes in. Clearly I whiffed with you, but that's okay.
That dispensed with, I do argue that there are good stories to be found among the common folk. I wrote my dissertation about guildsmen in Augsburg--bathhouse keepers and joiners and millers and shoemakers. Their stories were modest and confined, but nevertheless interesting when I read about the poor journeyman shoemaker who was refused master status because he had spent part of his journey in rural villages, even though this was not allowed but there was no work to be had in the city. That sort of thing. Sir OtherThing can have his jousts and his politicking.
And _that_ having been dispensed with, I'll say that I just watched a show about William the Marshall, an old favorite of mine ever since I read Georges Duby's biography. There are some definitely some great stories to be found among the great. Actually, there are good stories pretty much everywhere. I just like the ones about those with ordinary shoes. <Paul Simon reference>
Karlin
Sage
There was a period in which I read the personal memoirs of soldiers.
When my mother died, I found two cartons of letters that my parents wrote each other back in 1948-1949. I found an archive that wanted them. They scanned them and catalogued them. They said that such first hand accounts were really valuable to historians.
The Dark One
Auror
The fact that they are hard to find is probably the number one hindrance to exploring commoner stories.
I presume you've read The Cheese and The Worms by Carlo Ginsberg?
Oh yes. Microhistory! Magdalena and Balthazar is another (a good example for Karlin).
It isn't really all that difficult to find documents and other evidence for common folk, at least not from oh say the 14thc onward. Gets really rich by the 16thc. Historians have been working those fields for a very long time.
It isn't really all that difficult to find documents and other evidence for common folk, at least not from oh say the 14thc onward. Gets really rich by the 16thc. Historians have been working those fields for a very long time.
Prince of Spires
Istar
Are they documents about actual common folk, or are they just about rich people without titles? After all, a wealthy merchant in the 16th century would live very differently from one of the sailors on his ships, and his life would probably have more in common with a nobleman than with that sailor I'd think.
The Dark One
Auror
Cheese/Worms is a fascinating account regarding the unorthodox cosmology of common people in the C16.
Sourced from the records of the Italian Inquisition.
Sourced from the records of the Italian Inquisition.
>Are they documents about actual common folk, or are they just about rich people without titles?
I was thinking specifically of commoners. My whole dissertation was about common folk--millers, shoemakers, joiners, and bathhouse keepers. And there are scads of books and articles on that sort, going back well over a century. There are even works on the poor, on peasants, and marginalized people of various types.
The sources are tricky, often require specialized skills, but they exist. That most folk think history is only about the rich and powerful should be put down not to the profession but to corporate publishers, and their values and priorities.
I was thinking specifically of commoners. My whole dissertation was about common folk--millers, shoemakers, joiners, and bathhouse keepers. And there are scads of books and articles on that sort, going back well over a century. There are even works on the poor, on peasants, and marginalized people of various types.
The sources are tricky, often require specialized skills, but they exist. That most folk think history is only about the rich and powerful should be put down not to the profession but to corporate publishers, and their values and priorities.
Also brilliant is Ladurie's work on the peasants of Montaillou. It provides a rare look into how heresy {Cathar} worked in the countryside. Those inquisitors were fine records keepers.
The Dark One
Auror
My most recent sci-fi novel features the Cathars.
Gurkhal
Auror
Two more books for me. I really should get more novels as opposed to factual books.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
I think the last one I purchased with Empire Capital, by mr Thinker X.
While I do love the voice of Thinker X, he as a smooth flow do his narration, and I like following Tia and Peter, I think this second book in his series lacked a clearly identifiable conflict. This book, IMO, has a high likelihood of DNF, because the conflict is not present till near the end. Given the amount of work put into the book and the excellent way he is showing an empire struggling to return to wealth, I feel the series is worth reading. But Conflict does Trump Day-in-the-life-of. I hope in book 3 he gets to the dangers more rapidly..
While I do love the voice of Thinker X, he as a smooth flow do his narration, and I like following Tia and Peter, I think this second book in his series lacked a clearly identifiable conflict. This book, IMO, has a high likelihood of DNF, because the conflict is not present till near the end. Given the amount of work put into the book and the excellent way he is showing an empire struggling to return to wealth, I feel the series is worth reading. But Conflict does Trump Day-in-the-life-of. I hope in book 3 he gets to the dangers more rapidly..
Most recent book purchase: Newton's Cannon, by Gregory Keyes. At first I was surprised that I was enjoying the book so much, but then I saw what his track record is. So, yeah, of course he knows how to write a page-turner! Now I'm paying as much attention to the execution as to the story itself.
I enjoyed that book back in the day.
Waylen
Acolyte
Recently got the following:
- Celtic Folk & Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs
- The Anglo-Saxons - Marc Morris
- Egyptian Mythology - Garry J. Shaw
- The Core - Peter V. Brett
- Celtic Folk & Fairy Tales - Joseph Jacobs
- The Anglo-Saxons - Marc Morris
- Egyptian Mythology - Garry J. Shaw
- The Core - Peter V. Brett
minta
Troubadour
The most recent books I bought: The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins and The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman.
pmmg
Myth Weaver
I am holding off and waiting for the next reading round to start at Goodreads. I will probably pick up four book ones of a series. Where I am places now, one will be fantasy, and one will be SciFi. I've not rea a lot of ScoFI, but I have enjoyed the ones I have. I hope they live up.
xena
Troubadour
I Married a Lizardman by Regine Abel
pmmg
Myth Weaver
Hey, I read the Xena scrolls, And she did not marry a lizard man.
