If you think The Venerable Gieses are a little on the dry side, you will not be able to make it through Tuchman without falling into a coma. Dryyyyyyy. However, she, at least, has her shit togher facts straight.
Manchester was not a historian, he was a reporter. He has been responsible for the circulation of the worst factoids in circulation of the Middle Ages; at one point I tracked back exactly WHO asserted the medievals used to cover up the taste and smell of rotting meat with spices, and sure enough, it's in this book. Let's count them, NINE errors of fact in the first ten pages...
I'm sorry, we don't eat spoiled meat because IT MAKES US SICK. Medieval folks were just as likely to die because of eating spoiled food as we are today-- and less likely to survive because of, yanno, no antibiotics to kill the crap running rampant through one's system. They weren't real big on cause and effect back then, but they were just as capable of observing that BAD MEAT = SICK as we are.
Oh, and the kicker? He admits IN THE BOOK that he'd written this piece of trash when he was ill and needed the money, and later conceded that it was not... a good piece of scholarship.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-02-22 02:51 am (UTC)shit togherfacts straight.Manchester was not a historian, he was a reporter. He has been responsible for the circulation of the worst factoids in circulation of the Middle Ages; at one point I tracked back exactly WHO asserted the medievals used to cover up the taste and smell of rotting meat with spices, and sure enough, it's in this book. Let's count them, NINE errors of fact in the first ten pages...
I'm sorry, we don't eat spoiled meat because IT MAKES US SICK. Medieval folks were just as likely to die because of eating spoiled food as we are today-- and less likely to survive because of, yanno, no antibiotics to kill the crap running rampant through one's system. They weren't real big on cause and effect back then, but they were just as capable of observing that BAD MEAT = SICK as we are.
Oh, and the kicker? He admits IN THE BOOK that he'd written this piece of trash when he was ill and needed the money, and later conceded that it was not... a good piece of scholarship.
Um. Am I ranting?