Hanawalt’s text uses the innovative approach of evaluating the coroner’s records of several counties in England in order to elucidate the various aspects of life of typical peasant families. This approach highlights some of the everyday activities which could turn deadly, in turn giving readers a view into the work and pastimes of medieval people. The Ties that Bound cleverly uses information a previously unrecognized source of information to show the ways in which medieval life was lived and which activities could cause accidental deaths. These records were so valuable because they often contained interviews with witnesses or neighbors, the person who discovered the body or even the children of victims. While her sample of accidental death
