“In the 1930s Marc Bloch painted a complex and nuanced portrait of medieval society in which feudal relations played but a part. More importantly, he decentered feudalism from analysis of medieval society.

The program of study outlined by Bloch has dominated medieval studies until today. By the 1970s, feudalism had, by and large, disappeared from scholarly discourse, but, paradoxically, not from textbooks or the classroom. It was only a matter of time before someone pointed this out. But medievalists are a conservative lot and continued working as before. This is where Reynolds comes in. Susan Reynolds completes the quiet revolution begun by Marc Bloch.