The Early Cultures Of North West Europe

This 1950 book, produced as a memorial for Cambridge historian H. M. Chadwick, contains contributions on aspects of early culture in Northwestern Europe.

New to This Edition --

Most histories of exploration are written from the viewpoint of the explorers. This book, now available in paperback, focuses instead on the cultural encounters between European explorers and non-European people, reconstructing the experiences of both sides. The result is a remarkable work of comparative cultural history, ranging from North America to the South Pacific and from the voyages of Columbus to those of Captain Cook. Bitterli distinguishes three basic forms of cultural encounter: superficial contact, as in the early relations between Europe and China; a prolonged relationship, like that between missionaries and the North American Indians; and collision, leading to the destruction of the weaker partner, as happened in the Spanish Conquest of the West Indies and of Mexico. In a series of case studies Bitterli examines these types of cultural encounter, drawing on a wide range of primary sources.

Christopher Loveluck's study explores the transformation of Northwest Europe (primarily Britain, France and Belgium) from the era of the first post-Roman 'European Union' under the Carolingian Frankish kings to the so-called 'feudal' age, between c.AD 600 and 1150. During these centuries radical changes occurred in the organisation of the rural world. Towns and complex communities of artisans and merchant-traders emerged and networks of contact between northern Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle and Far East were redefined, with long-lasting consequences into the present day. Loveluck provides the most comprehensive comparative analysis of the rural and urban archaeological remains in this area for twenty-five years. Supported by evidence from architecture, relics, manuscript illuminations and texts, this book explains how the power and intentions of elites were confronted by the aspirations and actions of the diverse rural peasantry, artisans and merchants, producing both intended and unforeseen social changes.

This book is about how local communities in prehistory, by shaping their landscape, carved out a place for themselves in a big social world that stretched out far beyond the landscape they lived and worked in.

"Francia or Frankia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks or Frankish Kingdom (Latin: regnum Francorum), Frankish Empire, Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks during the Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Under the nearly continuous campaigns of Pepin of Herstal, Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, Charlemagne, and Louis the Pious?father, son, grandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson?the greatest expansion of the Frankish empire was secured by the early 9th century."--Wikipedia.