author
Eileen Power
1889–1940
A pioneering medieval historian, she brought everyday lives—especially the lives of women—into the heart of economic and social history. Her books and broadcasts helped make the Middle Ages feel vivid, human, and surprisingly modern.
2 Audiobooks
Medieval People
by Eileen Power
Medieval English Nunneries c. 1275 to 1535
by Eileen Power
About the author
Born in Altrincham in 1889, Eileen Power became one of Britain’s most influential historians of the medieval world. She studied at Girton College, Cambridge, later spent time at the École des Chartes in Paris, and built her academic career through teaching and research that focused on how ordinary people lived and worked.
Power is especially remembered for shaping economic and social history into something lively and accessible. Rather than treating the Middle Ages as a story of kings and battles alone, she explored trade, religion, daily life, and the experiences of women, helping to open up subjects that had often been overlooked.
She went on to become Chair in Economic History at the London School of Economics and also reached a wider public through writing and BBC broadcasting. When she died in London in 1940, she had already left a lasting mark on medieval studies and on the way history could be shared with general readers.