Eileen Power

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Throughout her career as a medieval historian, Eileen Power was engaged on a book about women in the Middle Ages. She did not live to write the book but some of the material she collected found its way into her popular lectures on medieval women. These lectures were brought together and edited by M. M. Postan. They reveal the world in which women lived, were educated, worked and worshipped. Power gives a vivid account of the worlds of the lady, the peasant, the townswoman and the nun. The result is a historical yet intimate picture of a period gone by yet with resonances for today. An intimate portrait of the writer and social historian, by Maxine Berg, is also included.

First published in 1928, the studies in this book illustrate the lives of children within various different times and social contexts. Created following the enthusiastic response which greeted the original Boys and Girls of History, this volume concentrates on the period subsequent to the Middle Ages in the history of Britain and home and overseas. As with the original, reconstructions of daily life are used as a means of avoiding the generalised tone employed in many historical accounts, the aim being to develop the young reader's knowledge through a sense of empathy with the figures being described. Highly readable, and containing a large number of beautiful illustrations, the text was again co-authored by the renowned historian Eileen Power, together with her sister Rhoda Power. It will be of value to anyone with an interest in early twentieth-century history books for young readers.

Eileen Power, best known for her posthumously published Medieval Women, was one of the foremost scholars of medieval economic and social history in the first half of the twentieth century. This 1922 work is a substantial study of medieval English nunneries between 1275 and 1535. Power examines in depth who entered the convents, how they were organised, their finances, activities and problems. Although medieval nunneries were significantly poorer and less well documented than the monastic houses, Power uses the available sources to build up a multifaceted picture of medieval life. Her arguments are firmly rooted in documentary evidence, but are presented in an extremely accessible and engaging style. The book reveals that convent life was not particularly ascetic or learned, and that in poorer houses the nuns had to find additional sources of income. Power's account of their methods of coping makes fascinating reading.