We start this week with Making Early Medieval Societies: Conflict and Belonging in the Latin West, 300-1200, edited by Kate Cooper and Conrad Leyser. Edward Roberts and the editors debate a lustrous collection which promises to be of immense value to specialists and students of early medieval social and cultural history (no. 1971, with response here).
Next up is Cathy McClive’s Menstruation and Procreation in Early Modern France, as Sarah Fox praises a book which offers a novel insight into the way in which gender and procreation were understood historically (no. 1970).
Then we turn to Zimbabwe’s Migrants and South Africa’s Border Farms : the Roots of Impermanence by Maxim Bolt. Richard Daglish and the author discuss a very welcome addition to the field of migrant culture and African social hierarchies (no. 1969, with response here).
Finally we have Natalie Zacek’s review of a varied collection of essays edited by Julia Brock and Daniel Vivian, Leisure, Plantations, the Making of a New South: The Sporting Plantations of the South Carolina Lowcountry (no. 1968).
Oh, and before I forget, please check out a belated but welcome response by Fred Anscombe to Alex Drace-Francis’ review of his State, Faith and Nation in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Lands.