Political Space in Pre-industrial EuropeSocial and cultural studies are experiencing a 'spatial turn'. Micro-sites, localities, empires as well as virtual or imaginary spaces attract increasing attention. In most of these works, space emerges as a social construct rather than a mere container. This collection examines the potential and limitations of spatial approaches for the political history of pre-industrial Europe. Adopting a broad definition of 'political', the volume concentrates on two key questions: Where did political exchange take place? How did spatial dimensions affect political life in different periods and contexts? Taken together, the essays demonstrate that pre-modern Europeans made use of a much wider range of political sites than is usually assumed - not just palaces, town halls and courtrooms, but common fields as well as back rooms of provincial inns - and that spatial dimensions provided key variables in political life, both in terms of territorial ambitions and practical governance and in the more abstract forms of patronage networks, representations of power and the emerging public sphere. As such, this book offers a timely and critical engagement with the 'spatial turn' from a political perspective. Focusing on the distinct constitutional environments of England and the Holy Roman Empire - one associated with early centralization and strong parliamentary powers, the other with political fragmentation and absolutist tendencies - it bridges the common gaps between late medieval and early modern studies and those between historians and scholars from other disciplines. Preface, commentary and a sketch of research perspectives discuss the wider implications of the essays' findings and reflect upon the value of spatial approaches for political history as a whole. |
Contents
The Princely Court and Political Space in Early Modern Europe | |
Drinking Houses and the Politics of Surveillance in Preindustrial | |
Politics Clubs and Social Space in Preindustrial Europe | |
Cumbria | |
The Geopolitics of Medieval England | |
Unrest in the German Imperial City | |
Topographies of Tension in English | |
Petitioning Places and the Credibility of Opinion in the Public Sphere | |
Which Switzerland? Contrasting Conceptions of the Early Modern Swiss | |
Bogus Kings and Officials in Early Modern England | |
Comment from a Historical Perspective | |
Spaces in Theory Spaces in History and Spatial Historiographies | |
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Common terms and phrases
Aegidius Tschudi aldermen alehouse associations Augsburg authority barbers Beat Kümin boundaries Cambridge cantons centre chap Charles church claims Confederation conflict confraternities context Court Leet courtiers Culture Cumbrian customary tenants drinking houses Dutch Republic Early Modern England Early Modern Europe eighteenth century Emperor Empire England English Civil War English Revolution Esslingen Esslingen am Neckar estates European example fols France Frankfurt French gentry geography German History Ibid Jahrhundert John king king's landowners Landscape late medieval London manor manorial maps monarch Mulhouse networks Neuchâtel Neuzeit nobles officials opinion Oxford palace Paris parishioners Parliament parliamentary enclosure Peter political sites political space popular princes printed petitions public sphere Reformation Regensburg Reichstag religious ritual role royal ruler servants seventeenth century sixteenth century social spaces Southampton spatial structure surveillance Swiss symbolic taverns territory town Tudor University of Warwick urban voluntary associations Watermillock