The Great Household in Late Medieval England. (Reviews).

C. M. Woolgar. The Great Household in Late Medieval England

New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999. x + 254 pp. + b/w and color illus. $35. ISBN: 0-300-07687-8.

The history of the household and its workings has been a subject of interest to historians for some time, and new work on the importance of gender in household relationships, power and the control of household space, and the managerial nuances of the household economy have bolstered our sense of a better understanding of social history must be based on our understanding of the family and the household framework. C. M. Woolgar's recent book provides an indispensable and accessible overview of the household systems of the gentry and aristocracy in England between 1200 and 1500. His careful research, excellent synthetic skills, and the wealth of illustrations that accompany his text make this book an informative and engrossing read.

Woolgar's study is unique in its attempt to survey a variety of great households, rather than focusing on one or a handful, in order to provide the broadest possible scope for his arguments and to offset the spottiness of the documentary evidence. Spottiness should not be taken to mean paucity, and Woolgar's impressive and wide-ranging list of sources consulted demonstrates how challenging the historical study of the household can be. This strategy to widen the scope of households under consideration is facilitated by the chronology of Woolgar's study, as he explains that between 1200 and 1500 the number of peers as well as the number of men called to Parliament increased. A larger political process thereby increased the number of great households available for study and the households themselves became a significant reflection at the local level of important governmental shifts. In addition, the household became a more fixed institution (though by no means an entirely static one), which makes it easier for t he historian to both recover and make sense of household documentation.

The great household was a complicated entity that resembles a modern corporation -- with all the difficulties that that implies. Woolgar persuasively argues that to understand that complexity one must master the details of its daily functions. Households combined financial, educational, proto-industrial, agricultural, ceremonial, and vocational functions in overlapping spheres of influence, cooperation, and antagonism. In these analyses of the inner workings of the household, Woolgar brings to the foreground facets of the late medieval household that can be all too easily forgotten, such as that most households were overwhelmingly male and youthful, given the preponderance of male servants and a relatively short life-expectancy. He reminds us that something as seemingly straight-forward as what to eat at dinner changed significantly over the period as changes in religious observance, medical philosophies, and changing ideas of what constituted "luxury" were sifted through and appropriated within the household framework.

The Great Household provides social and cultural historians of the period with an elegant and more reliable view of this important institution, and will shape further study in the field.