What Did Medieval Peasants Know? (2022)
16 days ago
- #medieval-history
- #historical-misconceptions
- #work-life-balance
- Barbara W. Tuchman warned against simplistic views of medieval life, highlighting the complexity and contradictions of the Middle Ages.
- Modern nostalgia for medieval times often romanticizes aspects like work-life balance, diet, and leisure, but these claims are often based on outdated or disputed scholarship.
- Juliet Schor's book 'The Overworked American' popularized the idea that medieval peasants worked fewer days (150) than modern Americans (250), but historian Gregory Clark now estimates peasants worked closer to 300 days a year.
- Medieval records are scarce, especially for peasants, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions about their daily lives.
- The Middle Ages' diversity across regions and time periods makes it hard to generalize, leading to myths and misconceptions.
- Modern biases often distort perceptions of medieval work, assuming clear separations between work and leisure that didn't exist for agrarian peasants.
- Medieval life had significant downsides, including high child mortality, lack of modern amenities, and constant threats of violence.
- Nostalgia for the Middle Ages is not limited to progressives; reactionaries also cherry-pick medieval history to support ideological agendas.
- The desire to return to a 'better' past is itself a medieval mindset, rooted in religious and cultural narratives of decline from an idealized past.
- Historians like Eleanor Janega and Gregory Clark acknowledge the appeal of medieval history for reimagining the future but caution against romanticizing a turbulent era.