The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350–1750 - Volume 1 - Peoples and Places 1

This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a European and global context. The term 'early modern' has been familiar, especially in Anglophone scholarship, for four decades and is securely established in teaching, research, and scholarly publishing. More recently, however, the unity implied in the notion has fragmented, while the usefulness and even the validity of the term, and the historical periodisation which it incorporates, have been questioned. The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750 provides an account of the development of the subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an integrated and comprehensive survey of present knowledge, together with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It aims both to interrogate the notion of 'early modernity' itself and to survey early modern Europe as an established field of study. The overriding aim will be to establish that 'early modern' is not simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive integrity. Volume I examines 'Peoples and Place', assessing structural factors such as climate, printing and the revolution in information, social and economic developments, and religion, including chapters on Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam. Cover 1 The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350–1750 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Preface 10 List of Figures 12 List of Tables 14 List of Maps 16 List of Illustrations 18 List of Contributors 20 Introduction: ‘Early Modern’ Europe and the Idea of Early Modernity 28 Part 1 Fundamentals 62 1. The Cartographic Emergence of Europe? 64 2. Weather, Climate, and the Environment 97 3. Disease and Medicine 121 4. Historical Demography 146 5. Time 172 6. Travel and Communications 192 7. Languages and Literacy 219 8. Printing and Printedness 241 9. A Revolution in Information? 271 Part 2 Societies and Economies 294 10. Economic and Social Trends 296 11. The Social Order 322 12. Households and Family Systems 340 13. Social Roles and Individual Identities 369 14. Consumption and Material Life 396 15. The Agrarian West 425 16. The Agrarian East 455 17. Country and Town in Mediterranean Europe 482 18. Towns and Urbanization 506 19. Manufacturing 536 Part 3 Churches, Faiths, and Beliefs 568 20. The Christian Church, 1370–1550 570 21. Protestantism and its Adherents 598 22. Early Modern Catholicism 628 23. The World of Eastern Orthodoxy 653 24. The Transformations of Judaism 679 25. Islam and Muslims in Europe 697 26. Cultures of Peoples 721 27. Belief and its Limits 747 Index of Names and Places 772 Index of Subjects 790 This chapter traces major trends in economic and social history during recent decades. Grand narratives of a transition from feudalism to capitalism that described early modern societies as stagnant and prone to Malthusian crises have given way to analyses of episodic dynamism and social transformations. Expansion in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries turned into stagnation or contraction in the seventeenth and renewed expansion in the eighteenth century. Yet, despite the common trend, regional divergence between southern and eastern Europe on the one hand and northwestern Europe on the other increased over time. In explaining this variance attention has shifted towards a new culture of consumption and diverse productive formations to explain why people became more 'industrious', and why households consumed more varied and sometimes exotic products. These processes began in the northwestern Europe but slowly extended elsewhere. This Handbook re-examines the concept of early modern history in a European and global context. Volume I addresses social and cultural identity, examining structural factors such as climate, printing and the revolution in information, economic developments, and religion, including chapters on Orthodoxy, Judaism and Islam. "Brings together a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of early modern European history, and how it has evolved historiographically over the past half century. Written by a broad range of leading international scholars across many academic disciplines"--Page [4] of cover V.1. Peoples And Place--v.2. Cultures And Power. Edited By Hamish Scott. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.