A classic of social history, Life in Medieval City uses Troyes in 1250 to explore the ordinary life of the small yet prosperous bourgeois. This is an age of relative stability and wealth. The Catholic Church is the undoubted supreme power in Christendom. A system of interlocking guilds regulates the cities, and the sophistication of stone walls against the relatively crude military logistics of the age favors defenders. Troyes is situated to mediate trade between the weavers of Holland and Europe, and the great markets of the Mediterranean, with winter and summer fairs the source of the city's wealth.

It's still the Middle Ages, and if something is to be done (cooking, cleaning, crafts, farming...) it is likely to be done with backbreaking effort, but the population is on the rise and things are noticeably better than they were a hundred years ago. The dislocations of the Black Death and the Reformation are far in the future. This is a charming little book, and if scholarship has moved on since 1981, its foundational, accessible, and a steal at $2.