An amusing, though lightweight, examination of English life in the
year 1000. With millennial fever gripping the publishing world,
biographer Lacey (Grace, 1994, etc.) and London Independent
journalist Danziger bring us back 1,000 years. Using a variety of
sources, including the writings of the Venerable Bede, the Julius
Work Calendar, and Beowulf, the authors probe topics as varied as
Viking military strategy, coin-making, the Easter feast, and the
development of English. It's clear that Christianity permeated
almost every aspect of daily life: "This was an age of faith.
People believed as fervently in the powers of saints' bones as many
today believe that wheat bran or jogging or psychoanalysis can
increase the sum of human happiness." Christian monks preserved
ancient knowledge by painstakingly transcribing Greek and Roman
texts; they also established schools and hospitals. The Church's
political power rivaled the state's, as both institutions promoted
reverence for authority. Gerbert of Aurillac, the pope sitting in
Rome at the millennium, was a ruthless political infighter and a
brilliant scholar who helped popularize the abacus. The authors dub
him, somewhat glibly, "the first millennium's Bill Gates." The book
possesses a wide-ranging, quickly shifting focus that is
alternately charming and exasperating. Like hummingbirds, the
authors never spend much time on any one subject. For example,
they'll begin a chapter by discussing bread-making, then shift to
the problems posed by insects, before finishing with the horrors of
medieval medicine (leeches, bloodletting, etc.). While they lack
the concentrated approach of historians, they're quite
entertaining. The book is weakest, however, when it tries to draw
parallels between the year 1000 and today. It's more than silly,
for example, when they refer to the medicinal herb agrimony as "the
Viagra of the year 1000." A diverting and accessible read, though
hardly noteworthy scholarship. Like a box of chocolates, it's
appetizing fun without much nutritional value. (Kirkus Reviews)
THE YEAR 1000 is a vivid evocation of how English people lived a thousand years ago - no spinach, sugar or Caesarean operations in which the mother had any chance of survival, but a world that knew brain surgeons, property developers and, yes, even the occasional gossip columnist. In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, Lacey and Danziger interviewed the leading historians and archaeologists in their field. In the year 1000 the changing seasons shaped a life that was, by our standards, both soothingly quiet and frighteningly hazardous - and if you survived, you could expect to grow to just about the same height and stature as anyone living today. This exuberant and informative book concludes as the shadow of the millennium descends across England and Christendom, with prophets of doom invoking the spectre of the Anti-Christ. Here comes the abacus - the medieval calculating machine - along with bewildering new concepts like infinity and zero. These are portents of the future, and THE YEAR 1000 finishes by examining the human and social ingredients that were to make for survival and success in the next thousand years.
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