LIFE AND WORK IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE. By P. Boissonade. Translated
with an Ifitraduction by Eileen Power. (Kegan Paul. 16s. net.)=No volume in the fine " History of Civilization " series Will be more warmly welcomed by serious readers than this is, becauseit 'fills an admitted gap in the English literature of the subject. Dr. Eileen Power, whose translation is excellent, says very truly that use have no English book on the economic development of mediae- val Europe as a whole which can compare with Professor Boissonade's learned, brilliant and suggestive study. Ite makes us realize the importance of Italy and Southern Ger- many, Champagne and Flanders, during the long period in which England was of small account save as an exporter of wool and hides. That is, we see mediaeval England in a true perspective. Moreover, we find that such English episodes as the Peasant Revolt were not isolated phenomena, but were paralleled by similar occurrences on the Continent, much as our Chartist movement was an echo, in part at least, of the revolutionary movement which upset the whole of Europe in 1848. Professor Boissonade's survey extends from the fifth to the fifteenth century. It should find a place at once in every historical library.
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