Popular recreation in the Middle Ages.

History is no longer an affair of battles and politics. The last century saw the growth of the idea that, local organization, economic development, and social customs, and their interrelation with political and other movements are most important in history. The field of social custom was opened up with a study of the most obvious element of society, the upper classes. The last century also saw the study of the Middle Ages emerge from the hazy misconceptions of the Romantic school, which had followed upon the contemptuous neglect of preceding generations. Now the scientific study of the customs of the ordinary folk of the Middle Ages, the people from whom the bulk of our modern population springs, is going ahead rapidly. Unfortunately the disappearance of many sources for the period makes a really complete and accurate picture of its society very difficult of attainment. [...