Steven Epstein (2) (1952–)

This is a solid survey of European economic and social history in the High and Late Middle Ages which manages the feet of being quite well-written and organised. There are two things which for me set this above the general run of college-level textbooks that are assigned in history survey classes in the U.S. One is the price: at $30, it's not super cheap but it's definitely not the eye-watering rates charged by a lot of textbook publishers. The other is that Epstein resolutely does not patronise the reader. There are passages which a first-year student might find challenging, and Epstein oddly takes for granted that your average undergraduate is going to understand what he means by Malthusian theories of demographic change. He references them repeatedly throughout the text but never actually says who Malthus was, or even makes it clear that these are not medieval ideas. Still, it seemed like my students overall responded well to the text, and found it gave them more to grapple with intellectually than the glossier textbooks which tend to have lavish images (the only illustrations here are in sometimes difficult to read greyscale) but are pitched at the reading level of the average 14 or 15 year old.… (mehr)