This volume investigates the complex political, social, and ecclesiastical developments of the Anglo-Norman world during the early 12th century through the lens of a contemporary chronicler. Marjorie Chibnall, a preeminent scholar of the period, provides a critical edition and translation of Orderic Vitalis's final books. The work serves as a primary source for understanding the shifting power dynamics between the Church, the nobility, and the monarchy in post-Conquest England and Normandy.

Historians and medievalists regard this edition as a foundational resource for the study of the 12th-century Church and state. The text is noted for its rigorous scholarly apparatus and remains a standard reference for academic research into the period.