Family and Community in Early Modern Spain
The Citizens of Granada, 1570–1739

An innovative study of power and the role of the family in Granada during the early modern period.

James Casey (Author)

9780521855891, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 January 2007

330 pages, 2 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.65 kg

"Casey's careful research advances our knowledge of family and urban life in early modern Spain, offering a significant contribution to a rich and growing field of inquiry." -Jodi Bilinkoff, American Historical Review

James Casey offers an innovative study of prestige, power and the role of the family in a Mediterranean city during the early modern period. He focuses on the structure and values of the ruling class of Granada, where a new elite consolidated its authority. The study suggests that their power was linked to the pursuit of honour, which demanded participation in the politics of the commonwealth and depended greatly on the network of personal relations which they were able to build with kinsmen, clients and patrons. It explores the way in which this system contributed to the relative tranquillity of the community during a turbulent time of religious and political change, that of the rise of absolutism and of the Counter Reformation. The book sheds fresh light on the nature of the early modern family and will be essential reading for historians of early modern Spain and Europe.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Knights and citizens
2. Nobles of the doubloon
3. Lords of Granada
4. The web of inheritance
5. The network of marriage
6. Blood wedding
7. Home of the citizen
8. The shadow of the ancestors
9. The spirit of the clan
10. The law of honour
11. Good commonwealth men
12. Defenders of the fatherland
Conclusion
Genealogies
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Sociology: family & relationships [JHBK], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], European history [HBJD]