Background
Bisson, Thomas Noel was born on March 30, 1931 in New York City. Son of T(homas) A(rthur) Bisson and Faith Williams Bisson.
( Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events ...)
Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events like the Norman Conquest and the First Crusade. Power fell into the hands of men who imposed coercive new lordships in quest of nobility. Rethinking a familiar history, Thomas Bisson explores the circumstances that impelled knights, emperors, nobles, and churchmen to infuse lordship with social purpose. Bisson traces the origins of European government to a crisis of lordship and its resolution. King John of England was only the latest and most conspicuous in a gallery of bad lords who dominated the populace instead of ruling it. Yet, it was not so much the oppressed people as their tormentors who were in crisis. The Crisis of the Twelfth Century suggests what these violent people--and the outcries they provoked--contributed to the making of governments in kingdoms, principalities, and towns.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0691137080/?tag=2022091-20
(This book--the first study of its kind in English in more...)
This book--the first study of its kind in English in more than fifty years--surveys the history of the medieval Crown of Aragon from its early origins in counties of the eastern Pyrenees. Reviewing the most recent research into the well-preserved archives of the region, Bisson recreates a sense of the energy, drama, and color of these creative and expansionist people between the 12th and 15th centuries. Throughout, the book duly stresses individual achievement and personality while at the same time providing a balanced overview of political and dynastic evolution, institutional foundations, economic and cultural affairs, and the socio-economic weaknesses that eventually led to a crisis in the federated realms in the late Middle Ages.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198202369/?tag=2022091-20
( Mute in life as in death, peasants of remote history r...)
Mute in life as in death, peasants of remote history rarely speak to us in their own voices. But Thomas Bisson's engagement with the records of several hundred twelfth-century people of rural Catalonia enables us to hear these voices. The peasants' allegations of abuse while in the service of their common lord the Count of Barcelona and his son the King reveal a unique perspective on the meaning of power both by those who felt and feared it, and by those who wielded it. These records--original parchments, dating much earlier than other comparable records of European peasant life--name peasants in profusion and relate some of their stories. Bisson describes these peasants socially and culturally, showing how their experience figured in a wider crisis of power from the twelfth century. His compassionate history considers demography, naming patterns, gender, occupational identities, and habitats, as well as power, coercion, and complaint, and the moralities of faith, honor, and shame. He concludes with reflections on the historical meanings of violence and suffering. This rich contribution to medieval social and cultural history and peasant studies suggests important resources and ideas for historians and anthropologists.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674895282/?tag=2022091-20
( This collection of essays makes an important contributi...)
This collection of essays makes an important contribution to our knowledge of feudalism and finance in France and Spain. Divided into four sections, it covers the use rulers made of courts, parlements, and assemblies for ceremonial, political and fiscal purposes; the institutional formation of Catalonia; comparative studies of France, Catalonia and Aragon in the twelfth century; and monetary and fiscal policies of contemporary rulers.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0907628699/?tag=2022091-20
( The Description for this book, Assemblies and Represent...)
The Description for this book, Assemblies and Representation in Languedoc in the Thirteenth Century, will be forthcoming.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007DMXZU/?tag=2022091-20
(Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events li...)
Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events like the Norman Conquest and the First Crusade. Power fell into the hands of men around castles who imposed coercive new lordships in quest of nobility, heedless of the old public order. In The Crisis of the Twelfth Century, acclaimed historian Thomas Bisson asks what it was like to live in a Europe without government, and he asks how people experienced power, and suffered. Rethinking a familiar history as a problem of origins, he explores the circumstances that impelled knights, emperors, nobles, and churchmen to infuse lordship with social purpose. Bisson traces the origins of European government to a crisis of lordship and its resolution. King John of England was only the latest and most conspicuous in a gallery of bad lords who dominated the populace instead of ruling it. Men like him had been all too commonplace in the twelfth century. More and more knights pretended to powers and status, encroached on clerical domains and exploited peasants, and came to seem threatening to social order and peace. Yet as Bisson shows, it was not so much the oppressed people as their tormentors who were in crisis. Covering all of Western Christendom, this book suggests what these violent people--and the outcries they provoked--contributed to the making of governments in kingdoms, principalities, and towns. The Crisis of the Twelfth Century is an unparalleled cultural history of power in medieval Europe, and a monumental achievement by one of today's foremost medievalists.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C47D248/?tag=2022091-20
Bisson, Thomas Noel was born on March 30, 1931 in New York City. Son of T(homas) A(rthur) Bisson and Faith Williams Bisson.
AB, Haverford College, 1953. Master of Arts, Princeton University, 1955. Doctor of Philosophy, Princeton University, 1958.
AM (honorary), Harvard University, 1987. Doctorate (honorary), University Autonoma de Barcelona, 1991.
Instructor, history Amherst College, Massachusetts, 1957—1960. Assistant professor history Brown University, Providence, 1960—1965. Associate professor, history Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, 1965—1967.
Associate professor history University California, Berkeley, 1967—1969, professor history, 1969—1987, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 1987, emeritus Henry Charles Lea professor, medieval history, since 1989.
(This book--the first study of its kind in English in more...)
( The Description for this book, Assemblies and Represent...)
( This collection of essays makes an important contributi...)
( Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events ...)
(Medieval civilization came of age in thunderous events li...)
( Mute in life as in death, peasants of remote history r...)
Fellow: Royal History Society (London), American Academy Arts and Sciences, British Academy (correspondent), Royal History Society (correspondent). Member: American Philosophical Society, Institute d'Estudis Catalans (Barcelona) (correspondent), Reial Academy Bones Lletres (correspondent), International Commission for History of Representation and Parliamentary Institutions (vice president since 1980), Medieval Academy American (president 1994-1995).
Married Margaretta Carroll Webb, August 18, 1962. Children: Noel, Susan.