An Economic and Social History of Later Medieval Europe, 1000–1500

This book examines the most important themes in European social and economic history from the year 1000 to the 1490s.

Steven A. Epstein (Author)

9780521706537, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 April 2009

304 pages, 36 b/w illus. 10 maps 1 table
22.6 x 14.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.41 kg

'… an impressive and very well written survey of European economic and social history from 1000 to 1500. … it provides an enjoyable read.' Speculum

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. These five hundred years witnessed the rise of economic systems, and the social theories that would have a profound influence on the rest of the world over the next five centuries. Surveying the full extent of Europe, from east to west and north to south, Steven 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.

1. Europe at the millennium
2. Agriculture and rural life
3. Trade 1000–1350
4. Cities, guilds, and political economy
5. Economic and social thought
6. The Great Hunger and the Big Death: the calamitous fourteenth century
7. Technology and consumerism
8. War and social unrest
9. Fifteenth-century portraits.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]