The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750: Volume I: Peoples and Place (Oxford Handbooks)

This Handbook provides a comprehensive introduction to early modern Europe in a global context. It presents some account of the development of the subject during the past half-century, but primarily offers an integrated survey of present knowledge, together with some suggestions as to how the field is developing. It is authoritative both on established topics in political history and the history of ideas, and also on newer fields such as the environment and the history of Europe’s developing cartography. Unusual for the attention given to the eastern half of the continent, it incorporates the Ottoman empire and Russia within ‘Europe’: exactly the perspective of contemporaries. Adopting a comparative approach, it demonstrates that ‘early modern’ is not simply a chronological label but possesses a substantive intellectual integrity. Volume 1 examines ‘Peoples and Place’, with sections on structural factors such as climate, demography, languages, literacy, printing, and the revolution in information; on social and economic developments; and on the nature of belief in the widest sense, including chapters on Orthodoxy, Judaism, and Islam as well as Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Preface List of Figures List of Tables List of Maps List of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction: ‘Early Modern’ Europe and the Idea of Early Modernity Hamish Scott Part 1 Fundamentals The Cartographic Emergence of Europe? Valerie A. Kivelson Weather, Climate, and the Environment Christian Pfister Disease and Medicine Mary Lindemann Historical Demography Anne McCants Time Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum Travel and Communications Hamish Scott Languages and Literacy Fania Oz-Salzberger Printing and Printedness James Raven A Revolution in Information? Ann Blair and Devin Fitzgerald Part 2 Societies and Economies Economic and Social Trends Regina Grafe The Social Order Andreas Gestrich Households and Family Systems Mikołaj Szołtysek Social Roles and Individual Identities Margaret R. Hunt Consumption and Material Life Janine Maegraith and Craig Muldrew The Agrarian West Tom Scott The Agrarian East Edgar Melton Country and Town in Mediterranean Europe James S. Amelang Towns and Urbanization R. A. Houston Manufacturing Markus Küpker Part 3 Churches, Faiths, and Beliefs The Christian Church, 1370–1550 David J. Collins, S.J Protestantism and its Adherents Ulinka Rublack Early Modern Catholicism Nicholas Terpstra The World of Eastern Orthodoxy Nikolaos A. Chrissidis The Transformations of Judaism David B. Ruderman Islam and Muslims in Europe Tijana Krstić Cultures of Peoples Caroline Castiglione Belief and its Limits Mack P. Holt End Matter Index of Names and Places Index of Subjects 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. 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.