The Green Ages: Medieval Innovations in Sustainability

Annette Kehnel's book, The Green Ages, reveals sustainability initiatives from the Middle Ages that offer inspiring examples and concepts for today's challenges.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 08 August 2024
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd

[It] reminds us that history can be a treasure trove - if one looks in the right places and asks the right questions. Peter Frankopan, author of Silk Roads, A must-read. Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oriel College, Oxford. Fishing quotas on Lake Constance. Common lands in the UK. The medieval answer to Depop in the middle of Frankfurt. These are all just some of the sustainability initiatives from the Middle Ages that Annette Kehnel illuminates in her astounding new book, The Green Ages. From the mythical-sounding City of Ladies and their garden economy to early microcredit banks and rent-a-cow schemes, Kehnel uncovers a world at odds with what we might think of as the typical medieval existence. Pre-modern history is full of inspiring examples and concepts that open up new horizons. And we urgently need them as today's challenges - finite resources, the twilight of consumerism, growing inequality - threaten what we have come to think of as a modern way of living sustainably. This is a revelatory look at the past that has the power to change our future.

Weight: 558g
Dimension: 241 x 164 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781800816251
Edition number: Main