Dave's Book Blog: "The Edge of the World" by Michael Pye

Friday, 25 August 2023

"The Edge of the World" by Michael Pye

This history purports to tell the story of 'how the North Sea made us who we are' (its subtitle) and there are indeed chapters about the Frisians, the Vikings and the Hansa but other chapters, while continuing to focus on the countries bordering the North Sea, are about the development of literacy and lawyering, fashion and nature, and plague. I suppose that the idea is that the communications enabled by travelling across the North Sea shaped these developments, but I felt that the focus was lost.

Having said this, the book was well-written and, as with all well-written histories, I learned not just about the topics being examined but also more, in delightful asides. I certainly learned how ruthless the Hanseatic merchants were in enforcing protectivism for their own trade: they even blockaded Norway till the population started to starve to bring the King of Noway to heel (Dealers rule)

Selected Quotes:

"The North Sea is much more than the water between a thousand beaches." (Introduction)
"Before there were passports and papers and notions of national identity, or even national history, you identified with where you happened to be, not where your mother and father were born. Your identity was lived in the present tense." (The invention of money)
"The rules of the sea: the best sex is available sex" (Making enemies)
"They were wilderness people out on the moors ... warriors who went howling into battles like wolves." (Settling)
"Monks were particularly forbidden to wear anything split, tight, short, pleated, or, worst of all, with the new-fangled buttons." (Fashion)
"Clothes cost so much that men couldn't marry, which was leading to sodomy, so fashion was distracting people from the serious business of replenishing the population." (Fashion)
"Eleanor was not a lady, not if she was working Cheapside when the light had gone on a Sunday night in December in 1394. Mind you, Eleanor was not a woman, either." (Love and capital)
"Plague became the reason, just like terrorism today, ... for taking away a worker's right to choose what work he wanted, for deciding which of the poor are worthy of help and which are just wastrels." (The city and the world)