In the introduction, Marcus Bull makes a point to say that this book is non-linear and does not follow France to the reign of it's kings. Since I learned about Medieval English history in the exact opposite way, and I only knew of the French peripherally when it pertained to that subject, I thought I may have bit off more than I could chew. I'm glad I stuck with it. Each chapter concentrates on a different topic of French life during that time told effectively by noteable scholars. Starting with the germination of the French identity, it then covers topics such as the church, lay culture and politics, and then ends it nicely with the French influence abroad particularly in the holy land and the Norman impact. It also has a great cache of recommended further reading in the back.



It's a challenging read, but it's never dry. It answered my questions and made look forward to reading more. Outside of knowing some key points of English history and the crusades you really don't need much to get the full enjoyment out of this book. I've never really appoached a new subject in a non-narrative way but this book has made me less skittish if it happens again. I hope to get my hands on the next volume of this series soon.