Carl I. Hammer Book order

The book delves into the colonial history of western Massachusetts, examining significant social, cultural, and political issues from the late seventeenth century through the American Revolution. Carl I. Hammer provides a comprehensive analysis of how these factors influenced the region's development and shaped its identity during a tumultuous period in American history.

"Using historical, topographical and archaeological evidence, this book explores the earliest history of two fundamental institutions in 9th and 10th century Bavaria: the development of the urban 'borough' and the emergence of castle-based lordship within the comital organization of the countryside, which formed the twin bases for the estate-based feudal constitution of the high Middle Ages."--Publisher's web site.

This book is divided into three parts. The first two chapters provide an introduction to the historical problem of early medieval slavery and a short history of Bavaria to provide background information. The next six chapters deal with a series of topics, which provide a complete historical overview of the institutions and conditions of slavery. This historical analysis is based upon an extensive collection of primary documents, each referenced in the text as it occurs in the discussion. These documents are then provided in English translation in the final three chapters of the volume.

This essay focuses on two illustrations of the `Labours of the Months', incorporated into a pair of early ninth century manuscripts containing astronomical and calendrical treatises. They are extremely significant as the first examples of this popular medieval topic. Hammer's work has two the first section examines the illustrations and their manuscripts from an art and intellectual history perspective, to place the pictures in the context of Carolingian cultural life, and also to determine whether the pictures are anything more then depictions of rural life. The second section aims to place the pictures in a more conventional historical context, suggesting why the manuscripts were produced in that period, who sponsored them, and their programmatic intent. This paper often goes beyond its primary subject to provide interesting insights into Carolingian politics.