The Problem of Labour in Fourteenth-Century England - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1903153042 ISBN 13: 9781903153048

Publisher: York Medieval Press, 2000

Synopsis

At the very moment that the image of the honest labourer seemed to reach its apogee in the Luttrell Psalter or, a few decades later, in Piers Plowman, the dominant culture of the landed interests was increasingly suspicious of what it described as the idleness, greed and arrogance of the lower orders. Labour was one of the central issues during the fourteenth century: the natural disasters and profound social changes of the period created not merely a 'problem' of labour, but also new ways of discussing and (supposedly) solving that problem. These studies engage with the contrasting and often competing discourses which emerged, ranging from the critical social awareness of some of the early fourteenth-century protest literature to the repressive authoritarianism of the new national employment laws that were enforced in the wake of the Black Death, and were expressed in counter-cultures of resistance and dissent. JAMES BOTHWELL and P.J.P. GOLDBERG lecture in history, and W.M. ORMROD is Professor of History, at the University of York. Contributors: CORDELIA BEATTIE, CHRISTOPHER DYER, RICHARD K. EMMERSON, P.J.P. GOLDBERG, KATE GILES, CHRIS GIVEN-WILSON, STEPHEN KNIGHT, DEREK PEARSALL, SARAH REES JONES.

About this title

About the Author:

W M Ormrod is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York.

Review:

Interesting and stimulating collection. effectively illustrated the worth of subjecting traditional historiographical themes to further scrutiny and to new methodological approaches. ECONOMIC HISTORY REVIEW

About this edition

• Publisher: York Medieval Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1903153042
• ISBN 13: 9781903153048
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 164
• Editor: Bothwell James, Goldberg P J P, Ormrod W Mark