Description: In this book, now available in paperback, he examines the history of France from the rise of the Capetians in the mid-tenth century to the execution of Joan of Arc in the mid-fifteenth. He takes the evolution of power and the emergence of the French state as his central themes, and guides the reader through complex - and, in many respects, still unfamiliar, yet fascinating terrain. He describes the growth of the castle and the village, the building blocks of the new Western European civilization of the second millenium AD.
Review Quotes: "Superb ... a great historian offers a fresh interpretation of one of the formative periods of French history." L'Histoire
"Superb ... a pleasure to read ... an invaluable work of history and reference" La Voix du Nord
"Duby has already changed our conception of medieval Europe. Extensively illustrated, with clear and helpful genealogical tables, this is a boldly written book, impeccably translated by Juliet Vale, that will stimulate discussion among specialists and non=specialists alike." The Jerusalem Post