- Centre for Medieval Studies
University of Toronto
125 Queen's Park, 3rd Floor
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5S 2C7
Shami Ghosh
University of Toronto, Centre for Medieval Studies, Faculty Member
- University of Toronto, History, Faculty Memberadd
- Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Medieval Economic and Social History, Medieval Peasantry, Medieval Germany, Economic History, and 204 moreSocial History, Peasant History, Agrargesellschaft Im Mittelalter, Agrargeschichte, Medieval Rural History, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Rural History, Early Modern economic and social history, Great Divergence Debate, Global Economic History, Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters, Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Medieval German Literature, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Old Norse Literature, Early Modern History, Medieval Latin Literature, Old Norse heroic saga and eddaic literature, Early Modern Europe, German Literature, German Studies, Early Medieval History, Oral Traditions, Crusades, Medieval Historiography, Death, Willehalm, Indian Economic history, Heroic Poetry, Early Middle Ages (History), Medieval Literature, History of the Crusades, Nibelungenlied, History of the Baltic Sea Region, Deutsche Geschichte, Henry of Livonia, Middle High German language and literature, Latin historiography, The Nibelung-Volsung cycle, Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, Northern Crusades, Middle Ages, Medieval Chronicles, Death Studies, Culture and death, World History, Death, Grief, and Mourning, Eighteenth Century India, Agrarian History, Historiography, Medieval Chronicles, Staufen Germany, Geschichtsschreibung, Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit, südwestdeutsche Agrargeschichte, Heldenlieder, Heldendichtung, Peasant Studies, Deutscher Orden, Deutschordensdichtung, Kreuzzüge, Kreuzzüge im Baltikum, Geschichtsbewußtsein im Mittelalter, skandinavische Geschichte, altisländische Literatur, Poetic Edda, Eddic Poetry, Snorra-Edda, Snorra Edda, Kings´ Sagas, Konungasögur, Geschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance, Personengeschichte, Stadtgeschichte, Weltgeschichte, Great Divergence, South Asian Economy; Great Divergence; Mughal Economy, Great Divergence Debates; Food, Staufer, Ottonian germany, Carolingian History, Salian Germany, Hohenstaufen, Bavarian History, Rural Social History, Landesgeschichte Baden-Württemberg, Bayerische Landesgeschichte, Rural Development, Bayerische Geschichte, Baden-Württemberg, Parzivals Frau, Barbarians and Romans in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, Diplomatics (Medieval), Carolingian Studies, Feudalism and Lordship, Anglo-Saxon, Medieval Literacy, Saxony (Germany), Anglo-Saxon Studies, Orality-Literacy Studies, Late Antiquity, Historical Consciousness, Old Germanic Languages, Beowulf, Hildebrandslied, Germanic History, Merovingian period, Visigothic Spain, Barbarians, Merovingian and Carolingian, Barbarian societies, Germanic Studies, Isidore of Seville, Mittelalter, Medieval Latin Historiography, Paul the Deacon, Medieval and Early Modern historiography, Germanic heroic poetry, Gregory of tours, Barbarian Kingdoms, Jordanes, Waltharius, Frühmittelalter, Isidoro di Siviglia, Historia Langobardorum, Fredegar, Migration Era Germanic History, Merovingian and Carolingian History, Ostrogothic Italy, Theoderic the Great, Ethnogenese Process, HISTORICAL POETRY, Getica, Germanic Literature and Philology, Widsith, Liber Historiae Francorum, Geschichtsbewusstsein, Paulus Diaconus Historia Langobardorum, Historia Gothorum, Mündlichkeit, Geschichte des Frühmittelalters, Heroic Epic, Geschichtsbewusstsein im Frühmittelalter, Mittelalterliche Geschichtsdichtung, Orality and Literacy, Medieval Social History, Medieval Silesia, Medieval Economic History, Schlesien, Polish Medieval Economy, Global History, Trade, Guilds, High Middle Ages, Medieval France, European Legal History, Holy Roman Empire, Holy Roman Empire (History), Institutional history, Ecclesiastical History, Heiliges Römisches Reich, History of the Low Countries, Tuscany, Tithes, Eleventh and Twelfth Century Europe, Medieval Law, Political and ecclesiastical history of the later ninth century, Thuringia, Hochmittelalter, Medieval Bishops, Lotharingia, Feudalism, Kirchengeschichte, Salzburg, Ninth Century Northern Europe, Ottonen, Karolinger, French Medieval History, tenth century western Europe, Ninth Century, Früh Und Hochmittelalter, Political and Social Medieval History, Feudal Revolution, Tenth-Century Reform, ottonische Geschichte, politische geschichte des Mittelalters, twelfth century European history, Crisis of the twelfth century, Political and Ecclesiastical History of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, Lehnswesen, Proprietary church in the middle ages, History of Slavery, Early Medieval Ireland, Byzantine History, Early Medieval Economy, Carolingian Economy, Early Medieval Italy, Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Medieval Legal History, Merowingerzeit, History of Serfdom, Free and Unfree Labour, Karolingerzeit, Early Medieval England, Late Middle Ages, and Germanistische Mediävistikedit
- I am a scholar of the history (primarily social and economic) and literature (mainly in Middle High German and Old No... moreI am a scholar of the history (primarily social and economic) and literature (mainly in Middle High German and Old Norse) of medieval and early modern western Europe, with a focus on (primarily rural) economic and social history, and the Germanic-speaking regions. I also have a strong subsidiary interest in global history and the so-called 'Great Divergence' debate(s), and two of my most recent papers concern these latter two topics. My principal current project concerns processes of commercialisation in medieval southern Germany, how these compare with similar processes in England, and the extent to and manner in which they relate, in either place, to the later development of capitalism.
Apart from economic and social history in the period 800-1600, my research interests include economic and social history in early modern Europe and Asia, Middle High German literature (principally Wolfram von Eschenbach), vernacular and Latin historiography, Old Norse literature, and the Baltic Crusades; I have written monographs and articles on all of these subjects.
I studied at King's College London, Harvard University, and the University of Toronto (where I completed my PhD in 2009), and I have held postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of Leicester, Magdalen College, Oxford, and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto. I joined the Centre for Medieval Studies and the Department of History in the University of Toronto in July 2016.edit
Writing the Barbarian Past examines the presentation of the non-Roman, pre-Christian past in Latin and vernacular historical narratives composed between c.550 and c.1000: the Gothic histories of Jordanes and Isidore of Seville, the... more
Writing the Barbarian Past examines the presentation of the non-Roman, pre-Christian past in Latin and vernacular historical narratives composed between c.550 and c.1000: the Gothic histories of Jordanes and Isidore of Seville, the Fredegar chronicle, the Liber Historiae Francorum, Paul the Deacon’s Historia Langobardorum, Waltharius, and Beowulf; it also examines the evidence for an oral vernacular tradition of historical narrative in this period.
In this book, Shami Ghosh analyses the relative significance granted to the Roman and non-Roman inheritances in narratives of the distant past, and what the use of this past reveals about the historical consciousness of early medieval elites, and demonstrates that for them, cultural identity was conceived of in less binary terms than in most modern scholarship.
In this book, Shami Ghosh analyses the relative significance granted to the Roman and non-Roman inheritances in narratives of the distant past, and what the use of this past reveals about the historical consciousness of early medieval elites, and demonstrates that for them, cultural identity was conceived of in less binary terms than in most modern scholarship.
Research Interests: Medieval History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Medieval Historiography, Historiography, Orality-Literacy Studies, and 53 moreEarly Medieval History, Late Antiquity, Historical Consciousness, Carolingian Studies, Old Germanic Languages, Germanic Philology, Beowulf, Hildebrandslied, Germanic History, Merovingian period, Visigothic Spain, Barbarians, Merovingian and Carolingian, Barbarian societies, Germanic Studies, Isidore of Seville, Mittelalter, Medieval Latin Historiography, Paul the Deacon, Medieval and Early Modern historiography, Germanic heroic poetry, Gregory of tours, Barbarians and Romans in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, Early medieval hagiography and historiography, Barbarian Kingdoms, Jordanes, Carolingian History, Barbarians societies, Late Antiquity, Ethnogenesis, Funerary World, Goths, Vandals, Sueves, Alans, Waltharius, Frühmittelalter, Isidoro di Siviglia, Historia Langobardorum, Fredegar, Migration Era Germanic History, Merovingian and Carolingian History, Ostrogothic Italy, Theoderic the Great, Ethnogenese Process, HISTORICAL POETRY, Getica, Germanic Literature and Philology, Widsith, Liber Historiae Francorum, Geschichtsbewusstsein, Paulus Diaconus Historia Langobardorum, Geschichtsbewußtsein im Mittelalter, Historia Gothorum, Mündlichkeit, Geschichte des Frühmittelalters, Geschichtsbewusstsein im Frühmittelalter, Heroic Epic, Mittelalterliche Geschichtsdichtung, and Mittelalterliche Geschichtsdichtung
This book is an examination of some of the principal issues arising from the study of the kings’ sagas, the main narrative sources for Norwegian history before c. 1200. Providing an overview of the past two decades of scholarship, it... more
This book is an examination of some of the principal issues arising from the study of the kings’ sagas, the main narrative sources for Norwegian history before c. 1200. Providing an overview of the past two decades of scholarship, it discusses the vexed relationship between verse and prose and the reliability as historical sources of the verse alone or the combination of verse and prose; the possibility and extent of non-native influence on the composition of these texts; and the function of the past, in particular given that most of the historiography of Norway was produced in Iceland. This book aims to stimulate studies of medieval Scandinavian historiography with its critical perspective on the texts and the scholarship, while also providing a useful work of reference in order to make this area of research accessible to scholars in cognate fields.
Research Interests: Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Medieval Historiography, Old Norse Literature, Medieval Scandinavia, and 26 moreHistorical Consciousness, Sagas, Kings´ Sagas, Skaldic Poetry, Theodoricus monachus, Historia Norwegie, History of Iceland, Scandinavian history, Norwegian History, Medieval Icelandic Literature, Viking Age Scandinavia, Icelandic Sagas, Latin historiography, Snorri Sturluson, Medieval Norway, Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture, Hochmittelalter, Konungasögur, Heimskringla, Morkinskinna, Fagrskinna, Früh Und Hochmittelalter, Skandinavistik, Geschichtsbewusstsein, skandinavische Geschichte, and altisländische Literatur
Forthcoming in Mediaeval Studies (2021). This is a preprint version of a peer-reviewed and accepted paper. Please do not cite this version without permission.
Research Interests: Economic History, Archival Studies, Medieval History, German History, Medieval Studies, and 14 moreAgrarian Studies, Peasant Studies, Rural History, Agrarian History, Medieval Germany, Bavarian History, Medieval Peasantry, Commercialisation, Agrargesellschaft Im Mittelalter, Transition From Feudalism to Capitalism, Bayerische Geschichte, Agrargeschichte, südwestdeutsche Agrargeschichte, and Bayerische Landesgeschichte
In India, Modernity and the Great Divergence, Kaveh Yazdani presents a compelling argument that with regard to certain technologies, agricultural productivity, financial systems and the rise of a merchant class, and even aspects of... more
In India, Modernity and the Great Divergence, Kaveh Yazdani presents a compelling argument that with regard to certain technologies, agricultural productivity, financial systems and the rise of a merchant class, and even aspects of scientific culture, two regions of pre-colonial South Asia-Mysore and Gujarat-experienced what Yazdani terms 'middle modernity' (14 th to 18 th century) in a manner comparable to other Eurasian regions. However, because certain specific aspects of modernity were less highly evolved than in Europe, and because of colonial intervention, there was a divergence between (parts of) Europe and these South Asian regions. While lauding Yazdani's achievement, I argue that crucial aspects of the transition to capitalism as well as the Great Divergence are lacking in his, as in most studies: the significance of a capitalist ideology and the rise of consumerism.
Research Interests: Economic History, Early Modern History, Transnational and World History, Indian Ocean History, South Asian History, and 15 moreMarxist theory, Early Modern Intellectual History, Early Modern economic and social history, Economic and Social History, British Indian Empire, Indian Economic history, Social and Economic History, Early Modern India, Marxist history, Global Economic History, Transition to Capitalism, Marxist History, Philosophy and Theory, Great Divergence Debate, Social History of Medieval and Early Modern India, and South Asian Economic History
This article explores the extent and nature of rural commercialisation in Bavaria and neighbouring regions in the middle of the fourteenth century. Although it is now generally accepted that English rural society was already highly... more
This article explores the extent and nature of rural commercialisation in Bavaria and neighbouring regions in the middle of the fourteenth century. Although it is now generally accepted that English rural society was already highly commercialised by this point, the situation in England has rarely been subject to detailed comparison with other parts of Europe, and few studies exist that examine rural commercialisation in medieval Germany. On the basis of an analysis of seven years of accounts from Scheyern abbey, the results of which are then compared both with other sources from and studies of southern Germany, and with the recent scholarship on England, this paper suggests that southern Germany was in fact in many respects comparable to England in terms of rural commercialisation, and therefore that differences in tenurial structure and the chronology of servile incidents are less relevant than have often been thought for the understanding of economic change in the later middle ages.
Research Interests: Medieval History, German History, Medieval Studies, Peasant Studies, Agrarian History, and 11 moreMedieval Germany, Bavarian History, Economic and Social History, Medieval Economic and Social History, Social and Economic History, Medieval Rural History, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Agrargesellschaft Im Mittelalter, südwestdeutsche Agrargeschichte, Bauern im Mittelalter, and Bayerische Landesgeschichte
Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on England and Germany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio-economic developments c.1200–c.1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance... more
Based on a synthesis of the empirical scholarship on England and Germany, this paper demonstrates that in both regions, rural socio-economic developments c.1200–c.1800 are similar: this period witnesses the rise to numerical predominance and growing economic significance of the ‘sub-peasant classes’, which had a growing impact on the market as a result of their increasing market dependence, and from which towards the end of the period a rural proletariat emerged. Against the influential theory of Robert Brenner, it is argued that the period c.1200–c.1400 cannot really be categorized as ‘feudal’ according to Brenner’s definition; and ‘agrarian capitalism’ does not adequately describe the socio-economic system that obtained by the end of the sixteenth century. A genuine transition to capitalism is only evident from after c.1750, and can be found in Germany as well as in England; it is predicated both on ideological shifts, and the evolution of the rural proletariat, which is only found in large numbers by or after c.1800.
Research Interests: Medieval History, Consumers & Consumption, German History, Agrarian Studies, Peasant Studies, and 38 moreRural History, Comparative History, Early Modern England, Rural Development, History of Capitalism, Late Medieval English History, Early Modern economic history, Agrarian History, Early Modern economic and social history, Agricultural History, Early modern Germany, Feudalism and Lordship, Medieval Germany, Rural Social History, Moral Economy, Medieval Peasantry, Late Medieval economic and social history, Manorialism, Feudalism, Peasant History, Medieval Economic and Social History, Medieval Rural History, Feudalism, Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Deutsche Geschichte, Agricultural commercialization, Agrargesellschaft Im Mittelalter, Medieval Peasants, Early Modern Peasants, Origins of Capitalism, Transition From Feudalism to Capitalism, Medieval History Germany, Breakdown of Feudalism, Late Medieval Germany, Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit, Agrargeschichte, südwestdeutsche Agrargeschichte, Deutsche Geschichte des des späten Mittelalters, and Brenner debate
Proceeding from a critical assessment of two recent books, Prasannan Parthasarathi’s Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did ot, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal and R. Bin Wong’s Before and Beyond Divergence, this paper takes stock of the present... more
Proceeding from a critical assessment of two recent books, Prasannan Parthasarathi’s Why Europe Grew Rich and Asia Did ot, and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal and R. Bin Wong’s Before and Beyond Divergence, this paper takes stock of the present state of the “Great Divergence” debate. It is argued that the discussion needs to be refined to distinguish between levels of economic development, and paths or trends, in the eighteenth century as well as between causes of sustained growth, and of stagnation or decline in the nineteenth century. It is further suggested that the debate needs to be connected to an understanding of the causes of a “Great Convergence” in the early modern world, and how different regions might have reached similar levels of economic complexity, but might nevertheless have been on different paths for future growth. Finally, this paper suggests that the divergence debate also needs to be connected to the debate on the transition to capitalism.
Research Interests: Economic History, Early Modern History, Comparative History, Eighteenth Century History, World History, and 26 moreColonialism, History of Capitalism, Global History, Early Modern economic history, Early Modern economic and social history, The Industrial Revolution, Chinese history (History), Comparative and Connected History, Indian History, Chinese economic history, Divergence, Indian Economic history, British Raj, Early Modern World History, South Asian Economy; Great Divergence; Mughal Economy, Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Great Divergence, Global Economic History, Global and Comparative History, Global Divergence, Weltgeschichte, Early Modern Globalization, Great Divergence Debate, Great Divergence Debates; Food, Industrious Revolution, and Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit
Tirthankar Roy’s recent synthesis on the economic history of early modern India claims to provide a new, overarching narrative placing this period within the broader sweep of the history of what Roy defines as ‘capitalism’ in India in the... more
Tirthankar Roy’s recent synthesis on the economic history of early modern India claims to provide a new, overarching narrative placing this period within the broader sweep of the history of what Roy defines as ‘capitalism’ in India in the very long term. This paper provides a detailed critique of Roy’s monograph, suggesting that it suffers from some serious methodological deficits, arising not least from a future-oriented paradigm that imposes anachronistic concepts on this period, including the very notion of ‘India’. Furthermore, his view of the economy as being fundamentally driven forward by the rise of a coastal polity expanding inwards from Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, sits awkwardly with his repeated claim that colonialism was of little significance for Indian economic history. Finally, the present paper suggests that this period might be more fruitfully approached not only by abandoning the telos of what we know of India’s future, but also by adopting both regionally-focused and comparative approaches, turning away from long-distance trade as the primary lens through which to view the economy, and instead examining endogenous factors in the economies of individual regions and enriching our understanding of them by reference to studies of other world regions with comparable patterns of development in the same period. More nuanced ways of approaching economic change in the very long run, including the importance of developments in modes of consumption and market- and profit-oriented economic behaviour, are suggested as a better means of understanding both the economies of the late pre-colonial centuries in the Indian subcontinent, and the development of capitalism, which should also be understood in a more specific manner than Roy allows.
Research Interests: Early Modern History, History of India, Rural History, Comparative History, Eighteenth Century History, and 25 moreWorld History, Global History, Early Modern economic history, Agrarian History, Early Modern economic and social history, History of Colonial India, Local and regional history, Dutch East India Company, Social and Economic History of India, Peasant History, British East India Company, Pre-colonial South Asian History, Early Modern India, South Asian Economy; Great Divergence; Mughal Economy, Great Divergence, Global Economic History, Eighteenth Century India, Transition to Capitalism, Early Capitalism, Comparative Economic History, Eighteenth Century In Indian History, Great Divergence Debate, Eighteenth Century Economic History, The Industrious Revolution, and South Asian Economic History
This paper presents an analysis of Ellwangen Abbey’s polyptych of 1337, with a view to understanding better the nature of the south German rural economy in this period. It is generally accepted that in England by this point, rural society... more
This paper presents an analysis of Ellwangen Abbey’s polyptych of 1337, with a view to understanding better the nature of the south German rural economy in this period. It is generally accepted that in England by this point, rural society was highly commercialised, despite (or because of) the survival, at least formally, of the manorial system. In contrast, there was little direct management of demesne lands in much of Germany by this point, but the evidence suggests that rural society was, here as well, heavily commercialised. Although this paper is an analysis of only one source for one micro-region, its results suggest that the situation in England might have been less exceptional than is often supposed, and the final section of this paper makes some further suggestions regarding the implications of this point. The article also intends to provide a comparandum from another region for scholars of rural history who cannot access German sources and scholarship, and serves as an invitation to further comparative research on the agrarian history of the later middle ages.
Research Interests: Medieval History, German History, Peasant Studies, Rural History, Agrarian History, and 26 moreAgricultural History, Rural Social History, Late Medieval History, Medieval Peasantry, Late Medieval economic and social history, Baden-Württemberg, Peasant History, Medieval Economic and Social History, Medieval Rural History, Peasants, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Deutsche Geschichte, Economic History (Late Medieval), Landesgeschichte Baden-Württemberg, Agricultural commercialization, Agrargesellschaft Im Mittelalter, Transition From Feudalism to Capitalism, The Medieval Peasantry, Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters, Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit, Agrargeschichte, südwestdeutsche Agrargeschichte, Bauern im Mittelalter, Grundherrschaft im Mittelalter, and Brenner debate
Research Interests: Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Crusades, Medieval Historiography, Baltic Studies, and 27 moreHistory of the Crusades, Middle High German language and literature, Latin historiography, Teutonic Knights, Baltic Crusade, The military religious orders of the Middle Ages : the Hospitallers, the Templars, the Teutonic knights, and others, Medieval Livonia, Mittelalter, Northern Crusades, Teutonic Order, Henry of Livonia, Chronicon Livoniae, Christianisation and Crusades in Baltic rim, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Mittellatein, Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, Mittellateinische Philologie, Geschichtsschreibung, Kreuzzüge, Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, History of the Baltic Sea Region, Baltic Crusades, Deutschordensdichtung, Livländische Reimchronik, Heinrich von Lettland, Deutscher Orden, and Kreuzzüge im Baltikum
An analysis of the figure of Condwiramurs, contrasting her with other female figures in Parzival, and also by comparing the text with Wolfram’s Willehalm, reveals that she is of great importance for Parzival’s election to the grail, and... more
An analysis of the figure of Condwiramurs, contrasting her with other female figures in Parzival, and also by comparing the text with Wolfram’s Willehalm, reveals that she is of great importance for Parzival’s election to the grail, and is herself destined to be grail queen; in addition, this figure demonstrates Wolfram’s ambivalent portrayal of contemporary society and its use of God for military and social enterprises.
Research Interests: Medieval Literature, Medieval Studies, Middle High German language and literature, Arthurian Romances, Mittelalter, and 15 moreking Arthur, Arthurian Literature, Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival, Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, Middle High German, Mittelalterliche Literatur, Grail Quest, Middle High German Literature, Grail Romance, Mittelhochdeutsch, Artusroman, Gralroman, Condwiramurs, and Parzivals Frau
Research Interests: Medieval Studies, Orality-Literacy Studies, Old Norse Literature, Oral Traditions, Early Medieval History, and 28 moreHistorical Consciousness, Old Germanic Languages, Germanic Philology, Heroic Poetry, Germanic History, Merovingian and Carolingian, Burgundian history, Germanic Studies, Frankish history, Nibelungenlied, Germanic heroic poetry, The Nibelung-Volsung cycle, Germanic languages, Old Norse heroic saga and eddaic literature, Poetic Edda, Mittelalterliche Geschichte, Frühmittelalter, Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters, Old Germanic Literatures, Migration Era Germanic History, History of the (Early) Middle Ages, Altgermanistik, Heldenlieder, Heldendichtung, Geschichtsbewußtsein im Mittelalter, altisländische Literatur, Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit im frühen Mittelalter, and Old Germanic Languages and Literatures
Research Interests:
In this masterful monograph, Alice Rio revisits one of the central questions in the historiography of early medieval Western Europe: how did the transition from slavery to serfdom take place? While many earlier answers to this question... more
In this masterful monograph, Alice Rio revisits one of the central questions in the historiography of early medieval Western Europe: how did the transition from slavery to serfdom take place? While many earlier answers to this question have proposed a more or less linear trajectory from late Roman slavery to the serfdom of the central Middle Ages, Rio sets out a compelling and elegant argument for a rather less elegant state of affairs: instead of trying to contort the messy source base into a seamless theory, she sensibly and convincingly argues that 'there is a fundamental problem with looking for a single linear story here: the line is far too broken up, too frayed with little individual threads making their own bids for escape, and often leading nowhere' (p. 248). Rather than smoothing over the very wide range of variation in what unfreedom could mean in this period, Rio aims to provide an interpretation of that diversity that can explain an overall trajectory without seeking to pare off the divergent possibilities that the sources present us with.