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Since the Anglo-Norman period itself, the relations beween the English and the Normans have formed a subject of lively debate. For most of that time, however, complacency about the inevitability of assimilation and of the Anglicization of Normans after 1066 has ruled. This book first challenges that complacency, then goes on to provide the fullest explanation yet for why the two peoples merged and the Normans became English. Drawing on anthropological theory, the latest scholarship on Anglo-Norman England, and sources ranging from charters and legal documents to saints' lives and romances, it provides a complex exploration of ethnic relations on the levels of personal interaction, cultural assimilation, and the construction of identity. As a result, the work provides an important case study in pre-modern ethnic relations that combines both old and new approaches, and sheds new light on some of the most important developments in English history.
Since the Anglo-Norman period itself, the relations beween the English and the Normans have formed a subject of lively debate. For most of that time, however, complacency about the inevitability of assimilation and of the Anglicization of Normans after 1066 has ruled. This book first challenges that complacency, then goes on to provide the fullest explanation yet for why the two peoples merged and the Normans became English. Drawing on anthropological theory, the latest scholarship on Anglo-Norman England, and sources ranging from charters and legal documents to saints' lives and romances, it provides a complex exploration of ethnic relations on the levels of personal interaction, cultural assimilation, and the construction of identity. As a result, the work provides an important case study in pre-modern ethnic relations that combines both old and new approaches, and sheds new light on some of the most important developments in English history.
Part I: Theory and Background
1: Introduction
2: English Identity before the Norman Conquest
3: Normanitas
4: Ethnic Identity and Cultural Difference
5: A Chronology of Assimilation
6: A Chronology of Identity
7: Ideology, Prejudice, and Assimilation
Part II: Personal Interaction, Assimilation, and Identity
8: The Interaction of English and Normans: Methodological
Considerations
9: The Aristocracy
10: English Women and Norman Men
11: The Peasants and the Middling Sort
12: Townspeople
13: The Religious
Epilogue
Part III: The Reconstruction of English Identity
14: The Defence of English Honour
15: The Image of England and a Sense of Place
16: Royal Government, England, and Englishness
17: The English Church, English Saints, England, and the
English
18: Stereotypes and the Image of the English
19: The Image of the Other
20: The Intensification and Politicization of English Identity
Part IV: Identity and Culture
21: History and Identity
22: High Culture, Religious Culture, and Ethnicity
23: Language, Literature, and Ethnic Identity
Conclusion
Appendixes
Bibliography
Hugh Thomas has written a challenging and rewarding book on a fascinating subject ... Thomas has put us all deeply in his debt even where we disagree with him and his assumptions. His book will henceforth be the starting point for discussions of this fascinating topic. English Historical Review It is to Thomas's credit that many of his investigations are entirely new ... and that he never allows theory to get in the way of good solid fact. His book will interest anyone who wishes to probe beneath the surface of national identity. History Today ... a thoughtful and in many ways thought-provoking survey of the intermingling of peoples, cultures and self-perceptions that resulted from the Conquest of 1066. History Today
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