Choice-Rezension
The famous archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler once wrote an instructive book, Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers (1955). Bartlett's extremely intelligent, readable, and comprehensive book might well be called "Medieval Europe Beyond the Hegemonic Frontiers." Bartlett assembles case studies, quantitative data, and apt quotes and anecdotes to tell the story of the expansion of Europe in the High Middle Ages. He shows the striking similarities and the differences between political, demographic, and sociocultural imperialism (and assimilation), as Christians extended their sway into Moslem Spain, the eastern Mediterranean, East Germany and the Baltic, and the Celtic fringes of the British Isles. Bartlett assesses the different factors and aspects of this movement: immigration; urban freedom; cereal agriculture; the diffusion of military technology; the spread of coins and charters; the cultivation of racism; and other institutions, strategies, and behaviors. The book is clearly written, well illustrated, and documented. In its wide range of examples and ease of comparison it is reminiscent of Marc Bloch's Feudal Society (1961); higher praise cannot be given in a short review. General; advanced undergraduate; graduate; faculty. J. T. Rosenthal; SUNY at Stony Brook