Peasants have been despised, underrated, or disregarded in the
past. Historians and archaeologists are now giving them a more
positive assessment, and in Peasants Making History, Christopher
Dyer sets a new agenda for this kind of study. Using as his example
the peasants of the west midlands of England, Dyer examines peasant
society in relation to their social superiors (their lords), their
neighbours, and their households, and finds them making decisions
and taking options to improve their lives. In their management of
farming, both cultivation of fields and keeping of livestock, they
made a series of modifications and some dramatic changes, not just
reacting to shifts in circumstances but also devising creative
initiatives. Peasants played an active role in the development of
towns, both by migrating into urban settings, but also by trading
actively in urban markets. Industry in the countryside was not
imposed on the rural population, but often the result of peasant
enterprise and flexibility. If we examine peasant attitudes and
mentalities, we find them engaging in political life, making a
major contribution to religion, recognizing the need to conserve
the environment, and balancing the interests of individuals with
those of the communities in which they lived. Many features of our
world have medieval roots, and peasants played an important part in
the development of the rural landscape, participation of ordinary
people in government, parish church buildings, towns, and social
welfare. The evidence to support this peasant-centred view has to
be recovered by imaginative interpretation, and by using every type
of source, including the testimony of archaeology and landscape.
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