[ExI] Impressive book: Farewell to Alms

[Damien Broderick]

At 07:16 PM 2/4/2008 +0000, BillK quoted:

>Anyone who looks at those landed
>upper classes as they actually operated in 1150, or even 1450, would
>see not diligent proto-consumers but a society with mores not unlike
>those of a Los Angeles street gang. What Tom Paine famously called the
>roving Norman banditti had a well-developed belief in instant
>gratification, in sinking wealth into ostentatious display, and in
>defending personal honor through immediate and extreme acts of
>violence. The English aristocracy had not advanced too far beyond the
>credo of its recent Viking ancestors, and they earned their wealth the
>old-­fashioned way: by stealing it.

EGGzackly! Thanks for digging out these excellent critiques, Bill.

Damien Broderick