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aliceboule's review
4.0
Very useful and an insightful work on medieval literacy in England (using a huge amount of sources that are both famous and unknown). Reads almost like a manual. My only criticism: Clanchy doesn't address (sufficiently) the role of women in the development of literacy, and goes so far as to discredit studies on monastic female literacy.
badfalcon's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
2.0
This was a slog to read, and I nearly gave up many times - it was only how utterly fascinating it was. But oh this was not a book that was written to be read!
nairam1173's review against another edition
4.0
I did it! The February-August length of time is mostly due to a lot of procrastinating where I let it sit in my "currently reading" making me feel guilty until I picked it up and actually started over in late July.
A fascinating book, if sometimes a bit dense and other times repetitive (not within a chapter, but one chapter may repeat the same ideas as another). I especially like the way it challenges the preconceptions of a society (ours) that thinks literacy is required for civilization.
There's too much to really sum up, but this book is rich and multifaceted and I'm glad that I finally sat myself down to read it all.
A fascinating book, if sometimes a bit dense and other times repetitive (not within a chapter, but one chapter may repeat the same ideas as another). I especially like the way it challenges the preconceptions of a society (ours) that thinks literacy is required for civilization.
There's too much to really sum up, but this book is rich and multifaceted and I'm glad that I finally sat myself down to read it all.
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