Epstein, Steven, 1952-
Cambridge, England New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Europe at the millennium — Agriculture and rural life — Trade 1000-1350 — Cities, guilds, and political economy — Economic and social thought — The great hunger and the big death — The calamitous fourteenth century — Technology and consumerism — War and social unrest — Fifteenth century portraits.
- This book examines the most important themes in European social and economic history from the beginning of growth around the year 1000 to the first wave of global exchange in the 1490s. The basic story, the human search for food, clothing, and shelter in a world of violence and scarcity, is a familiar one, and the work and daily routines of ordinary women and men are the focus of this volume. Surveying the full extent of Europe, from east to west and north to south, Steven A. Epstein illuminates family life, economic and social thought, war, technologies, and other major themes while giving equal attention to developments in trade, crafts, and agriculture. The great waves of famine and then plague in the fourteenth century provide the centerpiece of a book that seeks to explain the causes of Europe’s uneven prosperity and its response to catastrophic levels of death. Epstein also sets social and economic developments within the context of the Christian culture and values that were common across Europe and that were the cause of constant tension with Muslims, Jews, and dissidents within its boundaries and the great Islamic and Tartar states on its frontier.
Subjects:
- Europe — History — 476-1492.
- Europe — Social conditions — To 1492.
- Europe — Economic conditions — To 1492.
- Economic history — Medieval, 500-1500.
- Social history — Medieval, 500-1500.
- Middle Ages.
Requested by Adamo, P