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bunnyjadwiga) wrote2005-09-07 01:10 pm
bunnyjadwiga) wrote2005-09-07 01:10 pm
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Review: Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000
Stearns, Peter N., ed. Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000. (New York : Scribner, 2001) 6 vol.
This set strives to give overviews of a wide variety of social history topics in the Renaissance, Early Modern, and Modern/present eras. As the editors say "Social historian explore changes and continuities in the experience of ordinary people." As a result, these volumes are of particular interest to students of material culture looking for general overviews of theory, trends, and development. A particularly telling quote:
The modern boom in information available about modern and historical daily life is one of the factors the fuels and informs the movement. Interest in specific areas, such as gender, race, or age studies is another. Changing and evolving theories of social history as well as specific area studies are briefly covered in this work, though like the field itself, the editors "focus less on precise dates and events, more on shifts in larger patterns such as birthrates and beliefs about women's roles" (p. xx).
Because of poor historical recordkeeping, not mention large shifts in trends across the continent, the social history of Europe as a whole is a difficult subject to tackle. However, as a culture we insist on generalizing history, including ours, so educated generalizations and description and discussion of apparent trends are useful for the student of history, whether political, social or material. Such 'background reading' for the study of history can be invaluable; joined with bibliographies and comments on theoretical trends, it is a rich source of starting points.
The 209 articles are divided into six volumes:
I checked out the sections on Witchcraft, Birth, Midwives, Cleanliness, sexuality, widows & widowers, women and feminity, and child rearing and childhood. Each topic was covered in a general overview, though specific theoretical trends in the historiography were given larger sections. What appeared to me to be relatively balanced treatment of different views, along with a solid basis in fact (for instance, the editors comment that the medieval person was much cleaner than we are led to believe). Bibliographies, references to other articles in the set, and black and white illustrations add value to each essay. The Signed essays run about 5-15 pages long. The text is well written and engaging.
A good place to start, or to hunt for information on theories and historiography. In addition, this work provides a useful balance to general history in social encyclopedias covering non-European cultures. For the student, it is an interesting exercise to see a subject whose development, explication and description he or she is familiar with by the bookload narrowed down to a short essay!
This set strives to give overviews of a wide variety of social history topics in the Renaissance, Early Modern, and Modern/present eras. As the editors say "Social historian explore changes and continuities in the experience of ordinary people." As a result, these volumes are of particular interest to students of material culture looking for general overviews of theory, trends, and development. A particularly telling quote:
Further for ordinary people and for more elite sectors, social historians probe a wide variety of behaviors and beliefs, not just political actions or great ideas. They argue that the past is formed by connections among behaviors, from family life to leisure to attitudes toward the state, and that we better understand social concerns, such as crime or health practices, if we see how they have emerged from history. (p. xix)
The modern boom in information available about modern and historical daily life is one of the factors the fuels and informs the movement. Interest in specific areas, such as gender, race, or age studies is another. Changing and evolving theories of social history as well as specific area studies are briefly covered in this work, though like the field itself, the editors "focus less on precise dates and events, more on shifts in larger patterns such as birthrates and beliefs about women's roles" (p. xx).
Because of poor historical recordkeeping, not mention large shifts in trends across the continent, the social history of Europe as a whole is a difficult subject to tackle. However, as a culture we insist on generalizing history, including ours, so educated generalizations and description and discussion of apparent trends are useful for the student of history, whether political, social or material. Such 'background reading' for the study of history can be invaluable; joined with bibliographies and comments on theoretical trends, it is a rich source of starting points.
The 209 articles are divided into six volumes:
- Volume One includes: Methods and Theoretical Approaches, Periods of Social History, Regions, Nations and Peoples, Europe and the World
- Volume Two covers: Processes of Social Change, Population and Geography (including marriage patterns, birth, contraception and abortion, life cycle, health and disease, etc.), Cities and Urbanization, Rural Life (including agriculture, serfdome, fairs, collectivization), State and Society
- Volume Three: Social Structure (covering various social classes and special groups, such as military, artists, servants, students), Social Protest, Deviance, Crim and Social Control (police, madness and witchcraft are lumped in here, along with prostitution, crime, etc.), Social Problems and Social Reform (disabilities, alcohol, orphans and public health, among others)
- Volume Four: Gender, the Family and Age groups, Sexuality (including pornography, homosexuality, illegitimacy and cohabitation), Body and Mind (including cleanliness, childbirth, psychiatry, and manners), and Work (work ethic, work time, child labor, classes of work)
- Volume Five: Culture and Popular Culture (including magic and festivals, drinking and drugs, memory, music and dance, etc.), Modern Recreation and Leisure (including sports and vacations), Religion (somewhat limited to Belief and Popular Religion, Church and Society, Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy), Education and Literacy (includ teachers, printing, and journalism), Everyday life (housing, clothing, food, animals, toys, standards of living, material culture)
- Volume 6 includes biographies, directory of contributors and index.
I checked out the sections on Witchcraft, Birth, Midwives, Cleanliness, sexuality, widows & widowers, women and feminity, and child rearing and childhood. Each topic was covered in a general overview, though specific theoretical trends in the historiography were given larger sections. What appeared to me to be relatively balanced treatment of different views, along with a solid basis in fact (for instance, the editors comment that the medieval person was much cleaner than we are led to believe). Bibliographies, references to other articles in the set, and black and white illustrations add value to each essay. The Signed essays run about 5-15 pages long. The text is well written and engaging.
A good place to start, or to hunt for information on theories and historiography. In addition, this work provides a useful balance to general history in social encyclopedias covering non-European cultures. For the student, it is an interesting exercise to see a subject whose development, explication and description he or she is familiar with by the bookload narrowed down to a short essay!
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you got it, babe.