All too often the social history of the Middle Ages has been explored as an adjunct to high politics. This new study focuses on the medieval era's often overlooked ordinary men and women, for whom the politics of the manor, the vill, or the borough were often far more real and pressing. The book explores the various structures of society- household, family, parish or manor- and considers the ways in which ages, gender, maritial status shaped everday life.

P.J.P. Goldberg is Reader in History at the University of York, UK