The City-State in Europe, 1000-1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region - Hardcover

Scott, Tom

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199274606 ISBN 13: 9780199274604

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2012

Synopsis

No detailed comparison of the city-state in medieval Europe has been undertaken over the last century. Research has concentrated on the role of city-states and their republican polities as harbingers of the modern state, or else on their artistic and cultural achievements, above all in Italy. Much less attention has been devoted to the cities' territorial expansion: why, how, and with what consequences cities in the urban belt, stretching from central and northern Italy over the Alps to Switzerland, Germany, and the low countries, succeeded (or failed) in constructing sovereign polities, with or without dependent territories.

Tom Scott goes beyond the customary focus on the leading Italian city-states to include, for the first time, detailed coverage of the Swiss city-states and the imperial cities of Germany. He criticizes current typologies of the city-state in Europe advanced by political and social scientists to suggest that the city-state was not a spent force in early modern Europe, but rather survived by transformation and adaption. He puts forward instead a typology which embraces both time and space by arguing for a regional framework for analysis which does not treat city-states in isolation but within a wider geopolitical setting.

About this title

About the Author:

Before joining the Institute of Reformation Studies in St Andrews in 2004, Tom Scott was based in the School of History at the University of Liverpool. Before that he was a research fellow at Clare College, Cambridge. He has worked on town-country relations and regional identities in late medieval and early modern Germany, bringing his approach to bear upon aspects of the Reformation at the grassroots and on the German Peasants' War.

Review:

"This book is the culmination of a long, distinguished career that has always combined deep archival research with broad readings...It will be an indispensable guide to all historians seeking to understand the city-state as a European political phenomenon." --Renaissance Quarterly

"Scott studies the development of city-states in north and north-central Italy, in Swiss and south German cities, and in the Low Countries to determine whether the growth of strong city-states in this south to north line was the result of common facotrs. Recommended." --CHOICE

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0199274606
• ISBN 13: 9780199274604
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416