The Routledge History Handbook of Medieval Revolt: Comparative Perspectives (Routledge History Handbooks)

The Routledge History Handbook of Medieval Revolt charts the history of medieval rebellion from Spain to Bohemia and from Italy to England, and includes chapters spanning the centuries between Imperial Rome and the Reformation. Drawing together an international group of leading scholars, chapters consider how uprisings worked, why they happened, whom they implicated, what they meant to contemporaries, and how we might understand them now.

This collection builds upon new approaches to political history and communication, and provides new insights into revolt as integral to medieval political life. Drawing upon research from the social sciences and literary theory, the essays use revolts and their sources to explore questions of meaning and communication, identity and mobilization, the use of violence and the construction of power. The authors emphasize historical actors’ agency, but argue that access to these actors and their actions is mediated and often obscured by the texts that report them.

Supported by an introduction and conclusion which survey the previous historiography of medieval revolt and envisage future directions in the field, The Routledge History Handbook of Medieval Revolt will be an essential reference for students and scholars of medieval political history.

Justine Firnhaber-Baker is a specialist in late medieval political history at the University of St Andrews. Her publications include Violence and the State in Languedoc, 1250–1400 (2014) and Difference and Identity in Francia and Medieval France (co-edited with art historian Meredith Cohen, 2010).

Dirk Schoenaers has held post-doctoral positions at University College London and the University of St Andrews.