Survival and Discord represents the efforts of Christopher Dyer's friends, students and colleagues to celebrate his sixty- fifth birthday, along with his scholarly achievements. Survival and Discord lives up to the high standards of Brepols publications. It consists of an introduction, fifteen chapters, plus an appendix comprising an extremely useful bibliography of Dyer's considerable work. The chapters are all of an ideal length to read in a single sitting, and the use of footnotes makes the references highly accessible. Dyer's bibliography is arranged chronologically rather than alphabetically, allowing the reader to chart not only the progression of his scholarship, but also the variety of interests he pursued simultaneously.
Given the almost bewildering array of topics explored by Dyer over the years, it is admirable that the editors have been able to pick up on the two themes of survival and discord as representative of Dyer's scholarship within the broad fields of economic and social history and archaeology. The editors have made an apt choice, which they justify succinctly and eloquently in the introduction in terms of Dyer's concern with the opportunities and tensions inherent in class and settlement structures, and in sharing and exploiting resources within and between communities.
The book boasts an outstanding line-up of distinguished scholars. It is a stated aim of the editors for the essays to reflect virtually the whole range of Dyer's own varied interests. In the opinion of this reviewer, they have succeeded. There is not enough space to give a full overview of each article, but I hope to draw out some highlights over the following paragraphs.
The chapters cover an impressive chronological range, with a slight bias toward the later middle ages, reflecting Dyer's own work. The essays, however, are arranged not chronologically, but thematically, with an interesting twist--the subjects of the chapters progress from economic survival to discord in the form of open revolt, with many contributions elucidating the interconnections between the two themes. This 'spectrum' approach suits the material better than dividing the volume into thematic sections, which might prove too arbitrary.
The chapters range from the theoretical, with critical historiographical overviews such as Richard Britnell's evaluation of Postan's pessimistic view of the fifteenth-century economic environment and Samuel Cohn's critique of the scholarship of revolt, to detailed case studies of single manors. Although concentrating almost entirely on England, there is a notable geographical range within that country, with Chris Briggs' exploration of the position of demesne managers, for example, drawing on manor court rolls from twenty-five different locations. All contributions stress the importance of the local, the contingent and particular, in formulating historical explanations, another of Dyer's main concerns, which informs much of his work. The authors nonetheless manage to draw on relevant comparative material from other locations and times.
Within the themes of survival and discord, there is also a striking array of subjects and source material, which nevertheless do not detract from the volume's cohesiveness. The volume as a whole may be considered multidisciplinary, with a reasonable balance of documentary sources, landscape and archaeological evidence. Grenville Astill's opening chapter considers debates concerning the chronology of early medieval settlement, employing archaeological and numismatic evidence. Harold Fox's posthumous contribution on the exploitation of 'wastes' in Dartmoor over a number of centuries reflects Dyer's interest in topography, place-names, marginal areas and the exploitation of resources. Miriam Müller's essay uses documentary and archaeological sources to develop another of Dyer's interests, diet, relating food cultures both to survival and class conflict.
The cohesiveness of the volume may be partially attributed to the fact that nearly all contributions emphasise the theme of agency in different contexts. Although many of the authors make use of traditional sources, including accounts, rentals and manor court rolls, the book contains examples of some particularly innovative use of source material to demonstrate agency on the parts of a variety of actors, including lords, ecclesiastical bodies, peasant elites and urban governments.
Harold Fox emphasises the agency of lords and their agents in profiting from outsiders' use of their wastes to pasture their animals. Matthew Tompkins' and Jean Birrell's reconstructions of individual and communal peasant agency and negotiation skills in the face of lordly attempts to reassert their prerogatives are particularly impressive. Tompkins assesses a notable example of the rare occurrence of peasants collectively leasing their lord's demesne over a strikingly long period, while Birrell concentrates on unusual interpolations in a custumal of the manor of Alrewas. Both note the ability and willingness of peasants to use manorial documents to their own advantage. John Langdon, whilst assessing wage levels and the effects waged building employment had on individuals' ability to survive and reproduce, also puts forward examples of the ways in which individuals and families exploited opportunities at castle building sites to increase their incomes. Swanson, on the other hand, examines accounts and chapter act books for evidence of the dean and chapter of Lichfield's survival strategies regarding their income from spiritualities. He analyses the role of the agency not only of the dean and chapter, but also of the gentry families who farmed these tithes, and concludes with a call to further research into the ways in which gentry and other families might have exploited tithe farming. Several essays combine revaluation of scholarship with suggestions for future research. At the end of his analysis of trespass litigation in the manor court, for example, Philip Schofield suggests that further research into peasant agency could illuminate the ways in which the processes of the central courts were adapted to fit specific local manorial circumstances.
The volume's position as part of the Medieval Countryside series is slightly misleading, as, in keeping with Dyer's work, the chapters are by no means limited to the rural experience, although all touch on it in some respect. Richard Goddard's consideration of debt pleas in English borough courts and Jane Laughton's contribution on the strategies employed by the urban government to control disorder in Chester are cases in point. As the introduction points out, Dyer has been anxious to bridge the scholarly gap between the urban and rural, and a few contributions begin to do just that. Goddard assesses credit-debt relationships between inhabitants of town and country, as well as those within towns. James Masschaele's chapter on the socio-economic implications of itinerant royal justice for the places visited self-consciously bridges town and country in a way that reflects Dyer's attitude and interests. Masschaele simultaneously addresses issues of urban/rural social and economic interactions and conflict. Both Bas van Bavel and Samuel Cohn discuss the cooperation of rural and urban inhabitants in insurrectionist endeavours in several countries. The comparative material from the Low Countries towards the end of the volume might seem slightly out of place at first glance, if only because every other article's main focus is England, but it fits in nicely with Dyer's own work on the social background of revolts.
There are only some very minor quibbles. Some contributions employ specialist terminology, such as legal phrases in Schofield's chapter or numismatic terms in Astill's contribution, which newer students of medieval history, or specialists in other branches of the subject, may find somewhat difficult. Schofield's article appears to need some slight editing in order to correct a few typographical errors. These criticisms do not, however, detract from the value or interest of the individual chapters concerned or the book as a whole.
In the final analysis, Survival and Discord manages critically to evaluate longstanding historiographical debate, showcase current scholarship, and flag up areas of promising future research. It is a fitting tribute to Dyer's career thus far, and as such, is well worth a read by students of medieval socio- economic history, both rural and urban.