Interpreting Early Modern Europe

Description

Interpreting Early Modern Europe is a comprehensive collection of essays on the historiography of the early modern period (circa 1450-1800). Concerned with the principles, priorities, theories, and narratives behind the writing of early modern history, the book places particular emphasis on developments in recent scholarship. Each chapter, written by a prominent historian caught up in the debates, is devoted to the varieties of interpretation relating to a specific theme or field considered integral to understanding the age, providing readers with a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look at how historians have worked, and still work, within these fields. At one level the emphasis is historiographical, with the essays engaged in a direct dialogue with the influential theories, methods, assumptions, and conclusions in each of the fields. At another level the contributions emphasise the historical dimensions of interpretation, providing readers with surveys of the component parts that make up the modern narratives. Supported by extensive bibliographies, primary materials, and appendices with extracts from key secondary debates, Interpreting Early Modern Europe provides a systematic exploration of how historians have shaped the study of the early modern past. It is essential reading for students of early modern history. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of illustrations List of contributors Introduction: Interpreting early modern Europe History and historiography Making use of Interpreting Early Modern Europe Bibliography 1. Medieval and modern How the early moderns defined historical periods Defining ‘medieval’ Defining ‘early modern’ Sudden change or gradual transition? What may not have changed? Where to place the emphasis? Bibliography Appendices Appendix 1.1: On Luther’s apocalyptic expectations Appendix 1.2: On the character of early modern monarchies Appendix 1.3: On medieval religious culture 2. Identities and encounters Ethnographic sources: possibilities and problems Modes of analysis Conclusion Note Bibliography Appendix Appendix 2.1 3. Gender and social structures Bibliography Appendices Appendix 3.1: Disorderly women Appendix 3.2: Patriarchal equilibrium Appendix 3.3: Mixed marriages 4. Renaissance Gender and family Anthropology of the Renaissance Religion Toward a global economy Bibliography Appendices Appendix 4.1 Appendix 4.2 Appendix 4.3 5. Reformations Framing the subject Accounting for origins Making sense of experience Measuring outcomes Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendix 5.1 Appendix 5.2 Appendix 5.3 6. Media and communication ‘In the midst of things’: media and meaning The three Rs A good education: books and the renaissance The european ‘printing revolution’ in a global perspective Printers, books and readers The media and religious change The power of what we see– and hear– at adistance Censorship and the public sphere Bibliography Appendices Appendix 6.1 Appendix 6.2 Appendix 6.3 7. Material cultures Introduction From the material renaissance to the industrious revolution: multiplying the number of consumer revolutions The social and spatial dynamics of consumer changes Connecting the local and global Cultural perspectives The material turn Epilogue Bibliography Appendices Appendix 7.1 Appendix 7.2 Appendix 7.3 8. The state Introduction Early modern polities The new language of state The state as asocial fact Exclusion and inclusion Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendix 8.1 Appendix 8.2 Appendix 8.3 9. War and the military revolution Introduction The military revolution The military revolution in historical context Appraising the military revolution Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendix 9.1 Appendix 9.2 Appendix 9.3 10. Expansion, space, and people The traditional storyline Challenges Methods and theories Spaces People Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendix 10.1 Appendix 10.2 11. Commerce and industry Introduction Big ideas from the 1970s and 1980s Quantitative methodologies for the early modern period Widening horizons and the expansion of trade Industry and the Industrial Revolution Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendix 11.1 Appendix 11.2 Appendix 11.3 12. Science and reason The history of science and the philosophy of science The Whig interpretation of the history of science Externalism and internalism, and beyond Continuity or revolution? Feminist historiography and women in science Religion, science, and secularisation Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendices 12.1 a–b: The Difference between the History andPhilosophy of Science Appendices 12.2 a–b. Whig Interpretation of History Appendices 12.3 a–b. Continuity or Revolution? 13. Popular cultures and witchcraft How to be popular Community and gender Enchanted versus disenchanted Chronology: origins and effects Knowing witches and witchcraft Scepticism, science and the supernatural Afuture for witches and popular culture Bibliography Appendices Appendix 13.1 Appendix 13.2 Appendix 13.3 14. Political thought Introduction Liberalism and the pathologies of the modern state Civic humanism Reason of state Absolutism and constitutionalism Modern natural law and representation Conclusion and new directions: early modern or post-modern? Acknowledgements Bibliography Appendices Appendix 14.1 Appendix 14.2 Appendix 14.3 Appendix 14.4 15. Enlightenment struggles Introduction The answer to aquestion Enlightenment and totalitarianism The contemporary liberal case Conclusion Bibliography Appendices Appendix 15.1: Ernst Cassirer, The Myth of the State Appendix 15.2: Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment Appendix 15.3: Anthony Pagden, The Enlightenment: And Why it Still Matters 16. French Revolution The first modern revolution Origins of the French Revolution The end to privilege The terror and revolutionary violence Gender in the French Revolution Legacy of the French Revolution Bibliography Appendices Appendix 16.1: The Night of 4 August 1789 Appendix 16.2: Revolutionary Violence Appendix 16.3: Legacy of the French Revolution 17. Turns and perspectives Introduction New perspectives and paradigms Writing history now The state of the discipline Conclusion Acknowledgement Bibliography Appendices Appendix 17.1 Appendix 17.2 Appendix 17.3 Index