Pauline Stafford

This is a textbook, not a popular history book, so spare yourself if you are hoping to be entertained. Unfortunately, no one seems to have written a complete popular history of this period, so casual historians will have to resort to very dry histories to get filled in. Stafford covers the end of the reign of Alfred the Great to the Norman Conquest in detail, covering the facts of the period and where the (scant) information we have comes from.

Although it's difficult reading, this is a very well written and insightful history. I also really enjoyed Stafford's chapters that covered the nature of family life, the English economy, and what was required of kings in the period.

If you are like me and like to first read a broad, easy-to-understand overview of a period before diving into the details in a book like Stafford's, check out the chapter titled "The Scandal of Aelfgyva" in Andrew Bridgeford's "1066: The Hidden History in the Bayuex Tapestry." Bridgeford provides us with the popular history treatment of the period between the death of Athelred the Unready and the crowning of Edward the Confessor in this chapter. Bridgeford is actually discussing a mysterious figure in the tapestry (Aelfgyva) that scholars have been unable to identify, but two of the main contenders for who this person could be are Emma, the wife of Athelred and later Canute; or possibly the mother of Harold Harefoot, Canute's mistress. As a result, the chapter is a highly readable overview of a period that Stafford spends a lot of time on in her book. Of course, there's also always Wikipedia. I would highly recommend one or the other before picking up "Unification and Conquest," whether you are choosing to read it or were assigned it.… (meer)