This volume eschews general narrative history and consists of articles, most of which were presented to a conference organized in 1981 by the Past and Present Society.

This is a comparative study of the role of English and French towns in feudal society in the middle ages. In bringing together much material which dissolves old categories and simplifications in the study of medieval towns, Professor Hilton provides an important new perspective on medieval society and on the nature of feudalism. He argues that medieval towns were not, as is often thought, the harbingers of capitalism, and emphasises the way in which urban social structures fitted into, rather than challenged, feudalism.

This book portrays the rural and urban economies and the social structure of the West Midlands of England at the end of the thirteenth century.