Worthy Efforts: Attitudes to Work and Workers in Pre-Industrial Europe (Studies in Global Social History, 10)

In Worthy Efforts Catharina Lis and Hugo Soly offer an innovative approach to the history of perceptions and representations of work in Europe throughout Classical Antiquity and the medieval and early modern periods. Covering the broadest possible range of historical writings to elucidate the subject, and using visual representations as sources of information as well, they address the significance of work for different groups and its impact on their sense of self-esteem and their social identity. The authors reject the standard historical account of perceptions of work. They question the clear distinction generally drawn between Classical Antiquity and subsequent periods, the revolutionary role attributed to Christianity, and the part played by monasticism, Humanism, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. Contents Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction Part One Antiquity and Christianity: A Polyphonic Heritage Chapter One Attitudes to Work and Workers in Ancient Greece Productive Virtue Specialization and Politics Freedom and Independence Non-agrarian Activities: Morality and Meaning Craftsmanship and Honour Occupation and Identity Competing Discourses Chapter Two The Roman Empire: Continuity and Change The Economy and Elite Values Freedmen: Wealth and Status Collegia: Occupation, Status, and Power Skilled Labour as the Core of Social Identity Work Ethic A Provisional Balance Chapter Three Christian Ideologies of Work ‘Great Are these Achievements, and Distinctively Human’ ‘If Anyone Will Not Work, Then Let Him Not Eat’ Ora et Labora Naked to Follow the Naked Christ Slaves of Christ, the Indigent, and Sinners Workers at the Crossroads between Order and Chaos Labour in a ‘Calling’ Part Two Workers in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Images and Self-Images Chapter Four Imagined Peasantries Contrasting Images The Place of the Laboratores Interdependence and Reciprocity Hierarchy and Inequality ‘When Adam Delved and Eve Span’ Town and Country The Patriarchical Household and Rural Work ‘Improvement’ Rural Idyll Chapter Five Commerce: Useful and Honourable Work The Christian Church: Commerce as Work Honour versus Profit? Humanists and the Pursuit of Private Wealth Urban Middle Groups and Big Business Self-Images and Self-Representations Businesswomen Short-Lived Communities of Commerce The Ideal of a Commercial Society New Dissonances Chapter Six Artisans: Practice and Theory Mechanical Arts Craft Guilds Urban Corporatism: A World of Distinctions The ‘Backbone’ of the Corporative World Idealized Artisans and Imagined Workshops Self-Conscious Master Artisans Masters of Design and Original Creators Theoreticians and Technicians Fecit et Invenit 'Intellectual Artists’ and ‘Craftsmen-Artists’ Women Artists: Amateurs or Professionals? Light Bearing Versus Fruit Bearing Theory Does Not Labour The Middling Sort and the Value of Human Labour Chapter Seven The Many Faces of Wage-Labour Labour Laws 'Living at Their Own Hand’ Undeserving, Masterless Men and Idle Rogues Employment and the Active Society The Labouring Poor What Freedom? Work and Happiness Autonomous, Independent, and Self-Sufficient Collective Action Concluding Reflections Bibliography Index