This collection of essays, written by leading experts, showcases historiographical problems, fresh interpretations, and new debates in medieval and Renaissance history and political thought. Recent scholarship on medieval and Renaissance political thought is witness to tectonic movements. These involve quiet, yet considerable, re-evaluations of key thinkers such as Thomas Aquinas and Machiavelli, as well as the string of lesser known "political thinkers" who wrote in western Europe between Late Antiquity and the Reformation. Taking stock of thirty years of developments, this volume demonstrates the contemporary vibrancy of the history of medieval and Renaissance political thought. By both celebrating and challenging the perspectives of a generation of scholars, notably Cary J. Nederman, it offers refreshing new assessments. The book re-introduces the history of western political thought in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the wider disciplines of History and Political Science. Recent historiographical debates have revolutionized discussion of whether or not there was an "Aristotelian revolution" in the thirteenth century. Thinkers such as Machiavelli and Marsilius of Padua are read in new ways; less well-known texts, such as the Irish On the Twelve Abuses of the Age, offer new perspectives. Further, the collection argues that medieval political ideas contain important lessons for the study of concepts of contemporary interest such as toleration. The volume is an ideal resource for both students and scholars interested in medieval and Renaissance history as well as the history of political thought.

Sassetti’s Indian Letters are among the most interesting penned during these years, offering a trove of cultural speculation and economic analysis. Sassetti was neither a principled critic of imperialism nor a principled advocate of liberalism, but a pragmatic theorist of free trade Sassetti was very much the archetypal Renaissance man

Originally published in 1958, this new impression of The Queen's Wards from 1973 made available once more a work that remains a significant contribution to the history of society and government in Elizabethan England. The Court of Wards was a bizarre institution with roots going back to feudal mediaeval times. Revived by Henry VII, formally instituted by Henry VIII, the concept of wardship reached its zenith in Elizabethan times, when it was used as a powerful weapon in the raising of revenues and in controlling the aristocracy. The Court administered on behalf of the Crown the properties of fatherless minors (of whom there were many), bought and sold the rights to exploit these properties during the minority of the heirs, and even sold the heirs themselves into marriage (or withheld permission to marry). This control of marriage rights was clearly open to abuse, corruption and political exploitation, and as a symptom of Elizabethan times the Court provides an interesting and illuminating subject for study. The system had a special significance in government policy and played a considerable role in the politics of the age: this is attested to by the fact that for nearly half a century the history of the Court of Wards is dominated by William Cecil (Lord Burghley) and his son Robert. Many other prominent courtiers and politicians were involved, and figure in this book.

The House of Lords presented the stage on which some of the critical confrontations in English and British constitutional and political history were played out in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Published for the History of Parliament Trust. Condemned as 'useless and dangerous', the House of Lords was abolished in the revolution of 1649, shortly after the execution of King Charles I. Reinstated, along with the monarchy, at the Restoration of 1660, the House of Lords vigorously renewed its involvement in the political life of the nation. This highly illustrated book presents the first results from the research undertaken by the History of Parliament Trust on the peers and bishops between the Restoration and the accession of George I. It shows them as politicians at Westminster; as members of an elite intensely conscious of their honour and status; as a class apart, always devising new schemes - successful and unsuccessful - to increase their wealth and 'interest'; and as local grandees, to whom local society looked for leadership and protection. From the proud duke of Somerset to the beggarly Lord Mohun, from the devious earl of Oxford to the disgruntled Lord Lucas, the material here presents initial insights into the nature of the Restoration House of Lords and the men who formed it, showing them in their best moments, when they vigorously defended the law and the constitution, and in their worst, as they obsessively concerned themselves with honour and precedence and indefatigably pursued private interests. RUTH PALEY is editor, and BEVERLY ADAMS, ROBIN EAGLES and CHARLES LITTLETON are senior research fellows, for the House of Lords, 1660-1832 section of The History of Parliament. PAUL SEAWARD is director of The History of Parliament.

In the seventeenth century, England saw Holland as an economic power to learn from and compete with. English Economic Thought in the Seventeenth Century: Rejecting the Dutch Model analyses English economic discourse during this period, and explores the ways in which England's economy was shaped by the example of its Dutch rival. Drawing on an impressive range of primary and secondary sources, the chapters explore four key areas of controversy in order to illuminate the development of English economic thought at this time. These areas include: the herring industry; the setting of interest rates; banking and funds; and land registration and credit. The links between each of these debates are highlighted, and attention is also given to the broader issues of international trade, social reform and credit. This book is of strong interest to advanced students and researchers of the history of economic thought, economic history and intellectual history.

Fully revised, updated and extended to include the momentous developments of 2020, this fourth edition of Peter Rietbergen's highly acclaimed Europe: A Cultural History is a major and original contribution to the study of Europe. The book examines the structures of culture in this part of Eurasia from the beginnings of human settlement on to the genesis of agricultural society, of greater polities, of urban systems, and the slow transitions that resulted in a (post-)industrial society and the individualistic mass culture of the present. Using both economic and socio-political analytical concepts, the volume outlines cultural continuity and change in Europe through the lenses of literature, the arts, science, technology and music, to show the continent's ever-changing identities. In a highly readable style, it expertly contextualizes such diverse and wide-ranging topics as Celtic society, the Roman legal system, the oppositions between 'elite' and 'popular' culture in pre-industrial Europe, Michelangelo's world-view, the interaction between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, the growth of a society of time and money, the appeal of fascism and other totalitarian ideologies, and the ways the songs of Sting express late twentieth-century thinking. Structured both chronologically and thematically, the text is distinctive in the attention consistently paid to the many ways Europe has been formed through its contacts with non-European cultures, especially those of Asia and the Americas. This edition concludes with an epilogue that discusses the ways Europe's recent past - including the long-term efforts at further unification, and the various forms of opposition against it - has been both interpreted and misinterpreted; the importance of globalization; and the major challenges facing Europe in the present, amongst which are the consequences of the pandemic of 2020. With a wide selection of illustrations, maps, excerpts from primary sources and even lyrics from contemporary songs to support its arguments, the text remains the definitive cultural history of Europe for both the general reader and students of European history and culture.

Guild and State examines the values of social solidarity and fraternity that emerged from medieval guilds and city-communes, and the effect of traditional corporate organization of labor on socioeconomic attitudes and theories or the state. What ordinary guildsmen and townsmen thought about these issues can be gleaned from chronicles, charters, and reported slogans. But in tracing attitudes toward the guilds of early Germanic times to today's equivalent -- trade unions -- a distinction must be made between popular "ethos" and learned "philosophy."

In Europe, from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, the corporate organization of labor and of town-market communities developed side-by-side with the ideals of personal liberty, market freedom, and legal equality. Both affected the ideology of the European commune and city-state in specific and discernible ways. Self-governing labor organizations and civil freedom developed together as coherent practices. The values of mutual aid and craft honor on the one hand, and of personal freedom and legal equality on the other, formed the moral infrastructure of our civilization. Alternate ideals balanced, harmonized, and even cross-fertilized one another -- as in the principle of freedom of association.

Contrary to preconceptions, however, corporate values were seldom expressed philosophically in the Middle Ages. Political theory and the world of learning from the start emphasized liberal values. It was only after the Reformation that guild and communal values found expression in political theory. Even then only a few philosophers acknowledged that solidarity and exchange -- the poles around which the values of guild and civil society,respectively, rotate -- are not opposites but complementary, and attempted to weave these together into a texture as tough and complex as that of urban society itself.

The Enlightenment and industrialization led to an apotheosis of liberal values. Guilds disappeared and were only in part replaced by labor unions; the values of market exchange have since been in the ascendant -- though Hegel, Durkheim, and more recently, advocates of liberal corporatism maintain the possibility of a symbiosis between corporate and liberal values. In Guild and State there emerges an alternative history of political thought, which will be fascinating to the general as well as the specialist reader.

"Not only an engrossing read about the distant past, both informative and entertaining, but also a profoundly thought-provoking view of our not-really-so-'new' present . . . All medieval history is here, beautifully narrated . . . The vision takes in whole imperial landscapes but also makes room for intimate portraits of key individuals, and even some poems."-Wall Street Journal "A lively history . . . [Jones] has managed to touch every major topic. As each piece of the puzzle is placed into position, the modern world gradually comes into view . . . Powers and Thrones provides the reader with a framework for understanding a complicated subject, and it tells the story of an essential era of world history with skill and style."-The New York Times The New York Times bestselling author returns with an epic history of the medieval world-a rich and complicated reappraisal of an era whose legacy and lessons we are still living with today. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names-from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine-Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes readers on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West, and culminates in the first European voyages to the Americas. The medieval world was forged by the big forces that still occupy us today: climate change, pandemic disease, mass migration, and technological revolutions. This was the time when the great European nationalities were formed; when the basic Western systems of law and governance were codified; when the Christian Churches matured as both powerful institutions and the regulators of Western public morality; and when art, architecture, philosophical inquiry and scientific invention went through periods of massive, revolutionary change. The West was rebuilt on the ruins of an empire and emerged from a state of crisis and collapse to dominate the world. Every sphere of human life and activity was transformed in the thousand years covered by Powers and Thrones. As we face a critical turning point in our own millennium, Dan Jones shows that how we got here matters more than ever.

Catholic polemical works, and their portrayal of Protestants in print in particular, are the central focus of this work. In contrast with Germany, French Catholics used printing effectively and agressively to promote the Catholic cause. In seeking to explain why France remained a Catholic country, the French Catholic response must be taken into account. Rather than confront the Reformation on its own terms, the Catholic reaction concentrated on discrediting the Protestant cause in the eyes of the Catholic majority. This book aims to contribute to the ongoing debate over the nature of the French Wars of Religion, to explain why they were so violent and why they engaged the loyalities of such a large portion of the population. This study also provides an example of the successful defence of catholicism developed independently and in advance of Tridentine reform which is of wider significance for the history of the Reformation in Europe.

An engaging and comprehensive study of property-owning women in the colony of Tidewater, VA during the 16th century. It examines the social restrictions on women's behaviour and speech, opportunities and difficulties these women encountered in the legal system, the economic and discretionary authority they enjoyed, the roles they played in the family business, their roles in the later, Trans-Atlantic trading framework, and the imperial context within which these colonial women lived, making this a welcome addition to both colonial and women's history historians.

The book is a work of political archaeology: it focuses on the people and events at a particular colonial farm in Germantown, Pennsylvania. The peoples' and farm's stories provide a micro and macro view of economic, social, demographic, and agro-ecological change. Cresheim Farm shows how one mostly unknown but strategically placed piece of land - home to an extraordinary array of people, including anti-slavery and anti-Nazi activists, the first woman editor of the Saturday Evening Post and a robber baron - can tell, affect and reflect the history of a nation. The writing is historically grounded and academic, future-oriented, deeply researched, and immediate. Cresheim Farm serves as a lens through which to observe and magnify social forces, such as the launching point of freedom and democracy movements, white privilege, slavery, and genocidal westward expansion. The past lives on in all of us.

In the seventeenth century, riots, rebellions, and revolts flared around Europe. Concerned about their internal stability, many states responded by closely observing the violent upheavals that plagued their neighbours. Rebellion and Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe investigates how in this struggle for intelligence about internal discord, diplomats emerged as key information brokers and interpreters of Europe's tumultuous political landscape. The contributions in this volume uncover how diplomatic actors interacted with rulers, opposition leaders, informers, media entrepreneurs, and different audiences in their efforts to understand, communicate, and draw lessons from the insurrections in their time. Rebellion and Diplomacy also examines how diplomats actively tried to shape the course of internal conflicts by managing the spread news, supporting political factions at their court of residence, and even instigating violence. Covering different European regions from the Iberian Peninsula to Scandinavia and from the British Isles to the Carpathian Basin, the book will appeal to all students and researchers interested in early modern diplomacy, politics, and news cultures.

An engaging and comprehensive study of property-owning women in the colony of Tidewater, VA during the 16th century. It examines the social restrictions on women's behaviour and speech, opportunities and difficulties these women encountered in the legal system, the economic and discretionary authority they enjoyed, the roles they played in the family business, their roles in the later, Trans-Atlantic trading framework, and the imperial context within which these colonial women lived, making this a welcome addition to both colonial and women's history historians.

Thomas Cromwell has long been reviled as a Machiavellian schemer who stopped at nothing in his quest for power. As King Henry VIII's right-hand man, Cromwell was the architect of the English Reformation; secured Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and plotted the downfall of his second wife, Anne Boleyn; and was fatally accused of trying to usurp the king himself. But in this engrossing new biography, acclaimed British historian Tracy Borman reveals a different side to one of history's most notorious characters: that of a caring husband and father, a fiercely loyal servant and friend, and a revolutionary who was key in transforming medieval England into a modern state. Born in the mid-1480s to a lowly blacksmith, Cromwell left home at eighteen to make his fortune abroad. He served as a mercenary in the French army, worked for a powerful merchant banker in Florence at the height of the Italian Renaissance, and became a promising young cloth merchant in the Netherlands, then the mercantile capital of the world. But Cromwell decided to return to England and there built a flourishing legal practice. It wasn't long before Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was the Archbishop of York and the King's closest confidant, took note of Cromwell's immense intelligence, resourcefulness, and wit, turning him into his protege. When Wolsey was put under arrest for overstepping his bounds, Cromwell both protected his mentor and supplanted him. And he accomplished what Wolsey never could: Henry's divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon and a revolution in Britain's religious life. As Henry's top aide, Cromwell was at the heart of the most momentous event of his time--from funding the translation and dissemination of the first vernacular Bible to legitimizing Anne Boleyn as queen--and wielded immense power over both church and state. The impact of his seismic political, religious, and social reforms can still be felt today. Grounded in excellent primary source research, Thomas Cromwell gives an inside look at a monarchy that has captured the Western imagination for centuries and tells the story of a controversial and enigmatic man who forever changed the shape of his country.

In 1609, the entire Muslim population of Spain was given three days to leave Spanish territory or else be killed. In a brutal and traumatic exodus, entire families were forced to abandon the homes and villages where they had lived for generations. In just five years, Muslim Spain had effectively ceased to exist: an estimated 300,000 Muslims had been removed from Spanish territory making it what was then the largest act of ethnic cleansing in European history.Blood and Faith is a riveting chronicle of this virtually unknown episode, set against the vivid historical backdrop of Muslim Spain. It offers a remarkable window onto a little-known period in modern Europe-a rich and complex tale of competing faiths and beliefs, of cultural oppression and resistance against overwhelming odds.

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Lancaster Pamphlets

This book provides an accessible introduction to a wide range of concerns that have preoccupied historians over time. Global in scope, it explores historical perspectives not only from historiography itself, but from related areas such as literature, sociology, geography and anthropology which have entered into productive dialogues with history. Clearly written and accessible, this third edition is fully revised with an updated structure and new areas of historical enquiry and themes added, including the history of emotions, video history and global pandemics. In all of this, the authors have attempted to think beyond the boundaries of the West and consider varied approaches to history. They do so by engaging with theoretical perspectives and methodologies that have provided the foundation for good historical practice. The authors analyse how historians can improve their skills by learning about the discipline of historiography, that is, how historians go about the task of exploring the past and determining where the line separating history from other disciplines, such as sociology or geography, runs. History: An Introduction to Theory and Method 3ed is an essential resource for students of historical theory and method working at both an introductory and more advanced level.

This book aims to shed light on the roots of sustainability in the Iberian Peninsula that lie in the interrelations between shipbuilding and forestry from the 14th to the 19th centuries, combining various geographical scales (local, regional and national) and different timespans (short-term and long-term studies). Three main themes are discussed in depth here: firstly, the roots of current conservationism in the Iberian Peninsula; the evolution of the forest policies set in motion at the local, regional, and national levels to meet the demand for wood and timber; and the long-standing impact of naval empirical forestry on the conservation and transformation of the forest landscape. Therefore, the book attempts, on the one hand, to unravel the forest policies and empirical forestry implemented in the Iberian Peninsula as the roots or origins of what we refer to nowadays as "sustainability", to assess the contribution of imperial forestry to landscape planning and the conservation of forest resources, on the other, and, finally, to break away from the prevailing theological narrative that shipbuilding was the main agent of forest destruction in the Early Modern Iberian Peninsula, for which both quantitative and qualitative analyses will be conducted. This book could be of maximum interest to environmental and social historians and researchers, and anyone devoted to conducting research on the emergence and evolution of the concept of "sustainability" with respect to the governance and the historical transformation of woodlands around the world.

Recent years have witnessed a revival of interest in the history of the Huguenots, and new research has increased our understanding of their role in shaping the early-modern world. Yet while much has been written about the Huguenots during the sixteenth-century wars of religion, much less is known about their history in the following centuries. The ten essays in this collection provide the first broad overview of Huguenot religious culture from the Restoration of Charles II to the outbreak of the French Revolution. Dealing primarily with the experiences of Huguenots in England and Ireland, the volume explores issues of conformity and nonconformity, the perceptions of 'refuge', and Huguenot attitudes towards education, social reform and religious tolerance. Taken together they offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of Huguenot religious identity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

"I would rather live in a country with newspapers and without a government, than in a country with a government but without newspapers" - Thomas Jefferson. This is the first volume in a set traces the development of American journalism from its early beginnings in the 17th century up until 1940. Together the books outline the enormous changes which the industry underwent, from the production techniques to journalistic practices and changes in distribution methods. Media historians considered Hudson's history, "Journalism in the United States, from 1600-1872 (1873)", to be the authoritative text for the study of the development of American journalism, a subject previously neglected by American historians. The work has remained an important source for modern day scholars. Hudson (1819-75) became known as "the father of journalism" for his innovative news-gathering practices and was managing editor of the New York Herald, which by the outbreak of the Civil War was the most widely read newspaper in the United States. Alfred McClung Lee's "The Daily Newspaper in America. The Evolution of a Social Instrument" is an extensive examination of the newspaper industry from 1710 to 1936, from a

The Catholic Reformation (1999) provides a dynamic and original history of this crucial movement in early modern Europe. Starting from the late middle ages, it clearly traces the continuous transformation of Catholicism in its structure, bodies and doctrine. Charting the gain in momentum of Catholic renewal from the time of the Council of Trent, it also considers the ambiguous effect of the Protestant Reformation in accelerating the renovation of the Catholic Church. It explores how and why the Catholic Reformation occurred, stressing that many moves towards restoration were underway well before the Protestant Reformation. The huge impact the Catholic renewal had, not only on the papacy, Church leaders and religious ritual and practice, but also on the lives of ordinary people - their culture, arts, attitudes and relationships - is shown in colourful detail.

"I would rather live in a country with newspapers and without a government, than in a country with a government but without newspapers" - Thomas Jefferson. This is the sixth volume in a set traces the development of American journalism from its early beginnings in the 17th century up until 1940. Together the books outline the enormous changes which the industry underwent, from the production techniques to journalistic practices and changes in distribution methods. Media historians considered Hudson's history, "Journalism in the United States, from 1600-1872 (1873)", to be the authoritative text for the study of the development of American journalism, a subject previously neglected by American historians. The work has remained an important source for modern day scholars. Hudson (1819-75) became known as "the father of journalism" for his innovative news-gathering practices and was managing editor of the New York Herald, which by the outbreak of the Civil War was the most widely read newspaper in the United States. Alfred McClung Lee's "The Daily Newspaper in America. The Evolution of a Social Instrument" is an extensive examination of the newspaper industry from 1710 to 1936, from a

"I would rather live in a country with newspapers and without a government, than in a country with a government but without newspapers" - Thomas Jefferson. This is the fifth volume in a set traces the development of American journalism from its early beginnings in the 17th century up until 1940. Together the books outline the enormous changes which the industry underwent, from the production techniques to journalistic practices and changes in distribution methods. Media historians considered Hudson's history, "Journalism in the United States, from 1600-1872 (1873)", to be the authoritative text for the study of the development of American journalism, a subject previously neglected by American historians. The work has remained an important source for modern day scholars. Hudson (1819-75) became known as "the father of journalism" for his innovative news-gathering practices and was managing editor of the New York Herald, which by the outbreak of the Civil War was the most widely read newspaper in the United States. Alfred McClung Lee's "The Daily Newspaper in America. The Evolution of a Social Instrument" is an extensive examination of the newspaper industry from 1710 to 1936, from a

"I would rather live in a country with newspapers and without a government, than in a country with a government but without newspapers" - Thomas Jefferson. This is the fourth volume in a set traces the development of American journalism from its early beginnings in the 17th century up until 1940. Together the books outline the enormous changes which the industry underwent, from the production techniques to journalistic practices and changes in distribution methods. Media historians considered Hudson's history, "Journalism in the United States, from 1600-1872 (1873)", to be the authoritative text for the study of the development of American journalism, a subject previously neglected by American historians. The work has remained an important source for modern day scholars. Hudson (1819-75) became known as "the father of journalism" for his innovative news-gathering practices and was managing editor of the New York Herald, which by the outbreak of the Civil War was the most widely read newspaper in the United States. Alfred McClung Lee's "The Daily Newspaper in America. The Evolution of a Social Instrument" is an extensive examination of the newspaper industry from 1710 to 1936, from