Mark Block - a great historian, one of the founders of the school "Annals". "Kings-miracle workers" - one of his major works. This is a great book, a classic of historical research, broke new ground in the study of history. The book is devoted to the study of the representation, widespread in Europe from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century - that the kings of England and France have the power to heal scrofula simple touch of the hand. Mark Blok uses the story of the royal miracle to reveal a variety of topics. Chief among them - the nature of the monarchy, the political connection and the sacred, the birth and death of collective beliefs and prejudices, the problem of mass psychology. Marc Bloch was able to withstand the great balance between the general, global themes and a variety of private, concrete historical details. In this book you will meet a lot of interesting stories. Beggars flocked to the king, that he might touch them by hand, and healed them, miraculous ring and royal birthmarks signs, kings, using his gift of healing for political purposes, and kings bearing down on them as a waste of time, a strange saint and seventh sons, dividing the gift of healing with the kings ... The book is a great language, combining clarity, fun and scientific rigor, and has a detailed introduction by Jacques Le Goff and afterword A.Ya.Gurevicha.
