Despite some significant advances in the agrarian, economic, and social history of late medieval Europe over the last decades, much remains to be done. Many debates remain unsolved and many questions are still to be posed and answered. There is no doubt that England (or, at best, the British Isles) receive a disproportionally large place in Anglo-American historiography, while other parts of Europe (and beyond) tend to be left out. Thus there are relatively few comparative studies, approaching agriculture and agrarian society from a transnational perspective. The present volume, consisting of ten studies, is a first welcome step towards the “internationalization” of agrarian and social history.

Each chapter offers a succinct summary of the status quaestionis, albeit from a different perspective. In his article, Harry Kitsikopoulos’ revives the Marxist view on “crisis” as a phenomenon triggered by seigniorial institutions and peasant burdens. For George Grantham, on the other hand, “crisis” in France (and Flanders) was provoked by military and biological factors, rather than by seigniorial demands. Altogether a different perspective is taken by Paolo Malanima, who, in turn, suggests that “crisis” derived from an adverse combination of demographic and environmental factors. Social and political institutions are considered a dominant factor in the case of Scandinavia and Spain, studied by Janken Myrdal and Ana Rodríguez, respectively. In a chapter on Byzantium, (by Kostis Smyrlis), population pressure and warfare are significant factors in provoking “crisis.” Ironically, Grzegorz Myśliwski and Janet Martin show there was no “crisis” in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, and Kievan-Muscovite Rus’)

In addition to the diversity of views on “crisis,” there is a diversity of methodologies and approaches. Kitsikopoulos, an economist by training, uses an economic approach influenced by the New Institutional Economics School. He derives his statistical data from the secondary literature. Myrdal, on the other hand, because of the paucity of statistical and textual sources from Scandinavia, relies upon archaeological evidence. Grantham, Malanima, Rodríguez, Smyrlis, and especially Martin and Myśliwski do a great service to English-speaking readers by summarizing the main arguments of various historians writing in languages, often inaccessible to them.

The epilogue, summarized by Kitsikopoulos, divides Europe into two main regional groups. Group A, consisting of Southern England, Northern France, the Low Countries, Northern Italy, and Byzantium, is characterized by dense population, fragmented landholding, strong presence of seigniorial lordship, developed trade, and high urbanization rates. Group B includes Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Spain and is marked by low population growth and, hence, the lack of Malthusian paradigm. Spain is considered an outlier within the group, because of clear structural, institutional, and demographic differences between Catalonia and Castile. In all cases, the Black Death was a watershed event, leading to profound changes in demographic, socioeconomic and institutional trends.

With all its merits, however, the volume is not without drawbacks. First, despite its attempts to cover “Europe” as a whole, there are two notorious geographic lacunas: “Germany” (including both German and Swiss territories) and the Low Countries (even though Flanders is more or less represented in Grantham's chapter). It is unclear what prompted the editor to exclude these two important regions from the volume. This is especially pity, given the fact that both “Germany” and the Low Countries had very complex and diverse agrarian and socioeconomic patterns. Similarly, as far as Italy goes, only the North and Center are covered, despite the unquestioned importance of the South and Sicily. We should also regret the absence of anything on the Ireland and Scotland, or the Baltic lands.

There are some factual problems, too. Grzegorz Myśliwski suggests that in Bohemia and Poland respectively, millet cultivation occupied about 34 and 42 percent of all arable. Oddly, there is no reference to oats in this chapter at all. Given the omnipresent importance of oats in the pan-European context, especially as a fodder crop in the north, this claim is surprising. The mystery is resolved only by reading the (Polish-language) article on which Myśliwski relied (M. Dygo, “Wschód i Zachód: gospodarka Europy w XIV–XV wieku.” In Ziemie polskie wobec Zachodu. Studia nad rozwojem Europy, ed. S. Gawlas, pp. 117–94. Warsaw, 2006). It turns out that “oats” (owies in Polish) were indeed mistranslated as “millet” (proso, jagła in Polish). One can only surmise that something went wrong in the course of translating and copyediting Myśliwski's article. There are more important weaknesses in some cases. Much of Kitsilopoulos’ chapter engages, often in a polemic manner, with studies and arguments of Bruce Campbell, arguably the single most influential agrarian historian of late medieval England. Kitsikopoulos’ polemics with Campbell did not allow him to refer to and discuss the works of other authors (including Rodney Hilton, Ambrose Raftis, and his “Toronto School” students). In other cases the volume tends to be introductory, rather than theoretical/methodological in its scope. In her article, Rodríguez discussed the introduction of new cropping and field systems in thirteenth-century Spain in a somewhat general manner, leaving the technicalities aside. Slight clarifications here could have been much profitable for the reader.

Finally, it is surprising that, with the exception of Malanima's paper, very little is said about the environmental aspect, as a trigger of socioeconomic development. This omission effectively ignores much of Campbell's recent work. More generally, environmental history is a dynamic and rapidly growing field, especially in medieval studies. In particular, the volume has little on the Great Famine in the north (1315–1321), and literarily nothing on the Mediterranean famine of 1374/75, despite their profound impact on the agrarian society in Europe. Similarly, the Black Death is discussed mostly within the socioeconomic, rather than the environmental context.

This is nonetheless a successful volume, exposing us to different approaches to medieval agrarian history and reminding us of the importance of comparative approaches. The volume will be used as an important reference and introductory guide for those interested in the agrarian, economic, and social history of late medieval Europe.