Benjamin Thompson (1753–1814)

One of the great things about having an Kindle is the ease of accessing and reading unusual long-forgotten books. This collection of essays from Count Rumford was a chance to better understand the life and thoughts of this interesting figure from late 18th century Munich history.

Rumford was born in pre-revolutionary America but left when he found himself on the wrong side in the revolution. He ended up in Munich as an advisor to the Bavarian elector and made major contributions to the Bavarian military, to the Munich cityscape through his development of the English Garden, to technology in his work on stoves and chimneys, to the introduction of potatoes into Bavarian cuisine, and to innovative approaches for aiding the poor.

The first essay in the book talks in detail about his strategy for creating a poorhouse in Munich and offers insight into social conditions at the end of the 18th century. The other essays tend to be much less interesting unless, of course, you are very interested in how chimneys are constructed.

the book can be recommended to people interested in the history of Munich as well as those interested in the social history of Europe. It could also be of interest to economic historians due to its detailed discussion of prices for food and fuel.… (meer)

Monasticism was central to society for a millennium. From the monks who came with St Augustine to convert England in the sixth century, to those who resigned their monasteries into Henry VIII's hands in the sixteenth, the 'religious' were to be found in a wide range of social contexts, often well beyond their cloisters. The essays in this volume therefore reflect the diversity of medieval society through monastic engagement with it - not only with conversion and ministry, prayers and religious ideas, but also with kings and the aristocracy, book production and illumination, education, the economy, the peasantry, towns and the local society around the monastery. Yet running through this volume is the paradox of a movement whose central ideal was flight from the world, escape into 'unworldliness', but which was inextricably involved with society and had a lasting influence upon it. This fundamental tension gave medieval monasticism its dynamic history, as different movements repeatedly sought to define their relationship with the world, and lay perceptions of the monastic contribution to society changed. The different illustrations of the involvement of monasteries and society in these essays all contribute to a continuous common history in which monks were first responsible for creating both the church and much else in medieval Britain, but ultimately found that they had become superfluous, and were swept away, leaving nevertheless a permanent legacy to the modern world. There are sixteen pieces in this volume, including a substantial introduction by the editor, ranging from the early Anglo-Saxon period to the dissolution.… (meer)