1215: The Year of the Magna Carta / by Danny Danziger & John Gillingham

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In 1215 at Runnymede, a small section of forest west of London, the English nobles and King John (of Robin Hood fame) met peaceably to discuss the king's arbitrary rule of law opposing the canonical law of the land. Over-taxation and costly wars had made the King unpopular with the council of lords and barons who believed that the monarch already wielded too much power. Thus the nobles, rather than raise arms against the monarchy, an event which many felt would only lead to Civil War and increased French influence in the region, resorted to an ultimatum. King John would sign a treaty pledging to limit his sovereign priveleges and relegate authority to the barons or commit to an all out, self-destrucive war. Besides laying down restrictions to the king's authority, the 63 clauses of the charter introduced legislation regarding the right to a fair trial, right to own property and other stipulations involving personal freedoms and liberties. The document, then known as the 'Articles of the Barons' or simply the 'Runnymede Charter', became known as the Magna Carta.
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Though of minimal significance for its time--it was repealed and reconfirmed at intervals over the next few years--the Magna Carta would resonate through the ages as perhaps the most important individual document on civil liberties, including inalienable human rights and 'self-evident truths', that the world has ever seen. More importantly, it was the document which the American Founding Fathers perpetually referenced when drafting the Declaration of Independence and, later on, the U.S. Constitution. Danziger, already well-known for his concise histories which pinpoint a precise year, extrapolates here on the people and lifestyles during the early part of the 13th century in a more conventional historical chronicle rather than go into detail about the political ramifications of the charter itself. The actual Magna Carta isn't really got into until the final chapters with the signing of the document only found in the book's last pages. It's still a fun, informative and entertaining bit of history. (942.033 DANZIGER)

Globish: How The English Language Became The World's Language / by Robert McCrumb

The onset of the new millenium has seen English unquestionably become 'the world's language'. Despite there being more overall speakers of traditional Chinese-Cantonese and roughly the same amount of first-tongue Spanish speakers, English is the most all-encompassing, most proliferated, most diversified and decentralized language spoken throughout the world. It is the universal communications platform for all international business networks, the defacto lexicon in the integration of technology and the choice medium among most non-English speaking parties. And while much of author McCrum's analysis focuses on the etymology and evolution of English over the centuries, a good chunk of his central thesis is devoted to the impact the language has had on actual lives, how its shaped the world as we know it and what it's role will be in the future.

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McCrum's description of how things got where they are today is easy enough to follow. As casual history buffs may be aware of, the English speech, vocabulary and syntax is something of an amalgamation of other shared tongues. The English-speaking peoples as far back as King Alfred the Great circa 850 B.C. basically honed their language by splicing the Saxon Germanic-tongue with Latin-based imports, most notably French after the Norman Conquest in 1066. As Britain grew into a sovereign territory, a kingdom and finally a commonwealth, the language traveled across the globe spanning countries, generations and migrations of peoples from all different backgrounds. The final two centuries of the second millenium saw the full-fledged impact of the British Empire and Americanization which imprinted the language around the world, permanently overtaking French and Spanish as the official lingua franca and choice mode of communication among global entities.

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McCrum points out that English, more so than any other language, represents the fundamentals of individual freedom, democracy, and capitalism, something the author colorfully details in his chapter "The Audacity of Hope" among others. The diction itself offers as many different dialects, derivatives, ethnic variants, colloquial cachés and vernacular offshoots as there are places which speak it. With the flattening of the world, English has become its own vehicle so to speak, one which knows no bounds, carries few restrictions and offers a diversified way of self-expression. Further reading about English as the 'lingua globa' and McCrum's book can be found here in this recent NPR piece. (420.9 MCCRUM)

The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millenium, An Englishman's World / by Robert Lacey & Danny Danziger

Common notions of early medieval life evoke images of people wearing robes and tights, daily toiling in the mud-caked fields, laboring behind horse-drawn carts, walking through villages and towns where buildings are constructed entirely of wood and thatched roofing. Or one might think of knights on horseback, kings and castles, ladies in waiting and customary ceremonies depicted in any number of mediums. In fact, though many of these allusions maintain some level of accuracy, daily life in England and most other parts of western Europe was far from the conventionally accepted model previously described. Though life was no picnic with sparsely-insulated housing, unpleasant hygiene, high mortality rates and the constant threat of invasion, "life was not all that bad" say authors Lacey and Danziger who base much of their information on one of the few documented transcripts of the period--the Julius Work Calendar circa the year 1000, as close a thing the first millenium Britons had to an almanac.
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England in the year 1000 was still largely Anglo-Saxon. The Norman Conquest would not take place until 1066 when the entire social and demographical landscape would change permanently as the nobility and landowning entities would be transplanted by French-speaking invaders from nearby Brittany (France). Without a unified nation and with only a barely established monarch, Aethelred the Unready, ruling the larger part of the southwest portion (Wessex) of the country, the land and people were vulnerable but composed. There was peace and even prosperity during this period, larger landowners (still separate from the feudal system which would arrive with the Normans) orchestrating the cultivation of the land through peasants and lower level farmers. During hard times, towns and villages banded together and forged their way through it, while in better times the societies even thrived with frequent agricultural surpluses appearing on record despite notable accounts of scarcity and famine.
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One thing both the authors and most people today would agree on is the correlation of illiteracy and superstition. The high concentration of pietist individuals, along with prevalent mystical interpretations of nature and reports of fantastical beings or supernatural occurrences could be directly attributed (in most cases) to a thoroughly uneducated populace. Only about 1 percent of the country could read, write or dictate early English, and few beyond that were able to read or write Latin. Consequently, records from the era are sparse, and that's being generous. Marginally few detailed transcripts, or personal accounts outside what the local Bishops and monasteries preserved have survived through the years. Though a decade removed from its initial publication, The Year 1000 is, more than anything, an entertaining read, more than worth it for curious history buffs or readers with inquiring minds.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory

Betrothed at the age of three, Catalina has been groomed since birth to be Queen of England. Raised by her parents Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, to always place duty and country first, Catalina comes to England at the age of 15 to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catalina is confident, ambitious and highly intelligent, and is herself a master of intrigue and political expediency. But soon, widowhood at young age of sixteen, she finds herself alone in the labyrinthan Tudor court of Henry VII, mocked and penniless, and a pawn caught between two countries. Now she must rely on her own intelligence, skills, and ambition, to survive the intrigues of her parents, her court and even her husband to become Queen Katherine of Aragon.

This book provides an intriguing and detailed look at the Tudor monarchy amid the geopolitical realities of Europe in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The author combines extensive research with a clear and captivating writing style to create a superb picture of this amazing and extraordinary woman.