This extensive reopening of all firmly held views turned the debate into a most satisfying experience, for it emphasized exploration rather than agreement. Most contributions to the debate are being published in this volume.

This up-to-date discussion takes as its starting point the challenge to the traditional notion of feudalism in the twenty-five years since the publication of Jean-Pierre Poly and Eric Bournazel's work on the 'mutation feodale' and Susan Reynolds's attack on the very idea of a feudal society in the Middle Ages. While these challenges have presented a new picture of Western Europe in the so-called feudal age, one more focused than the traditional model of feudalism was, no new scholarly consensus has yet emerged. The volume has two objectives. Firstly, it discusses the present state of research, bringing together leading representatives of the various interpretations of feudalism. It examines the character of medieval society, including questions of landholding, government, and the relationship between king and aristocracy. Secondly, it provides a new geographic perspective on the subject by considering countries little discussed from a feudal perspective. In addition to discussing countries that have been prominent in previous studies of feudalism such as England and France, the book also includes contributions on Germany, Spain, Scandinavia, Hungary, and Romania, thus supplying a truly European perspective and a comparative view of social structure in different regions of Europe.

This book revisits the idea of a 'Feudal Revolution' in Europe between 800 and 1100, examining the causes of profound socio-economic change.

Whether or not Indian society in the early medieval period was feudal has remained an important issue of animated debate in Indian historiography for nearly four decades. The hypothesis of Indian feudalism has been criticised by traditional as well as by 'radical' historians, though both categories of scholars often seem to share a neo-colonialist perception of early Indian society as static. This volume brings together a vast mass of empirical data which shows the fallacy of their arguments. The book is divided into three parts, each devoted to an important aspect of the feudal phenomenon. The first part deals with the problem of transition from pre-feudal to feudal society and the second with the nature of state shaped largely by the growth of new classes as a result of agrarian changes, sluggish trade and the limited role of money in society. The third part explores the linkages between the socio-economic changes and the ideological trends noticeable in early medieval times. A collection of articles by eminent historians with an unquestionable grasp of the primary sources, the work underlines the heuristic value of the feudal construction for a meaningful understanding of historical processes at work in early medieval India. The editor's introduction convincingly refutes the arguments of the critics of the feudal model by drawing comparable material from European as well as Asian countries, and adds new dimension to the feudalism debate by relating it to developments in the field of religion, literature and art.

The Brenner Debate discusses the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe through a variety of view points.

Essays largely on Studies in the development of capitalism, by M. Dobb.