11 Comments
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CynthiaW's avatar

Wow, cool. It gets the old Germanic blood up even in boring old American church ladies.

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Matt Osborne's avatar

New forms of social unity emerge out of battle all the time. That's probably why there are cave paintings of Mesolithic battles -- they were socially formative events.

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Ed West's avatar

everyone remembers wars and forgets plagues.

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Matt Osborne's avatar

The paintings, I think, were used to tell the stories of actual battles. They contain stories: reinforcements arriving, flanks turning, leaders leading, and so on. Here is a contact battle, or perhaps a guide to how you win a contact battle with bows and arrows. People had to use their evolved capacity for language and remember events as narrative. We have immune systems to remember disease for us.

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Ed West's avatar

yes that is true. With most contagious disease not much you could do anyway.

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CynthiaW's avatar

To be fair, we know a lot more about the plagues of antiquity and post-antiquity than we did in the 1970s and 80s.

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A. N. Owen's avatar

Indeed. People are more likely to remember Roman battles and barbarian invaders but very few are aware of the great plagues that did more than anything else to destabilize the empire.

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Mike Hind's avatar

Hi Ed, thanks for this rip-roaring tale. I’d appreciate your recommendations for any English-language histories of France in general and Normandy in particular, if & when you can.

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Ed West's avatar

Discovery of France would be the obvious starting point.

Marc Morris's book about Normans also v good.

TBH though Ive read far more about medieval than modern. John Julius Norwich book on France a lovely tribute to the country which he loved so much.

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Mike Hind's avatar

Thanks Ed - that gives me a helpful jumping off point.

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Simon Davies's avatar

'That sweet enemy' by Robert Tombs and his wife Isabelle is worth a read.

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