The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250, 2nd Edition
April 2008, Wiley-Blackwell
In this new edition, R. I. Moore updates and extends his original argument with a new, final chapter, “A Persecuting Society”. Here and in a new preface and critical bibliography, he considers the impact of a generation’s research and refines his conception of the “persecuting society” accordingly, addressing criticisms of the first edition.
Preface to the First Edition.
The Common Enemy.
3. Purity and Danger.
4. Power and Reason.
5. A Persecuting Society.
Bibliographical Excursus: Debating the Persecuting Society.
- New edition of a classic text in medieval history, written by
one of the leading scholars on heresy.
- Argues controversially that the persecution of minority groups
- Jews, lepers, heretics - was part of a pattern whereby Europe
became, as it has remained, a persecuting society.
- Extends the original argument with a new final chapter.
- Considers the impact of a generation's research and addresses
criticisms of the first edition.
- Includes a new preface and critical biography.
Praise for the first edition:
"A brilliant account of medieval Europe...it is a pleasure to
read an account that is so obviously of importance for our own
societies, yet is conceived in a full international context."
Times Higher Education Supplement
"A fundamental work of historical sociology, as important in its way as the works of Georges Duby and Mark Bloch...a courageous and wide-ranging thesis." M. T. Clanchy, Times Literary Supplement