Reproduction of the original: Town Life in the Fifteenth Century by Mrs. J.R Green

Six essays explore the making of human identities and agency in English communities between the Great Plague and about 1600. They also focus attention on the processes of understanding past cultures and their texts. Among the topics are court politics, sacred and secular drama, and women. Paper edition (2416-9), $15.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A paperback edition of the successful 1994 collection of essays on society in fifteenth-century England.

Since the mid-twentieth century, political histories of late medieval England have focused almost exclusively on the relationship between the Crown and aristocratic landholders. Such studies, however, neglect to consider that England after the Black Death was an urbanising society. Towns not only were the residence of a rising proportion of the population, but were also the stages on which power was asserted and the places where financial and military resources were concentrated. Outside London, however, most English towns were small compared to those found in contemporary Italy or Flanders, and it has been easy for historians to under-estimate their ability to influence English politics. Politics and the Urban Sector in Fifteenth-Century England, 1413-1471 offers a new approach for evaluating the role of urban society in late medieval English politics. Rather than focusing on English towns individually, it creates a model for assessing the political might that could be exerted by towns collectively as an 'urban sector'. Based on primary sources from twenty-two towns (ranging from the metropolis of London to the tiny Kentish town of Lydd), Politics and the Urban Sector demonstrates how fluctuations in inter-urban relationships affected the content, pace, and language of English politics during the tumultuous fifteenth century. In particular, the volume presents a new interpretation of the Wars of the Roses, in which the relative strength of the 'urban sector' determined the success of kings and their challengers and moulded the content of the political programmes they advocated.

English Political Culture in the Fifteenth Century is a new and original study of how politics worked in late medieval England, throwing new light on a much-discussed period in English history. Michael Hicks explores the standards, values and principles that motivated contemporary politicians, and the aspirations and interests of both dukes and peasants alike. Hicks argues that the Wars of the Roses did not result from fundamental weaknesses in the political system but from the collision of exceptional circumstances that quickly passed away. Overall, he shows that the era was one of stability and harmony, and that there were effective mechanisms for keeping the peace. Structure and continuities, Hicks argues, were more prominent than change.

A comprehensive history of the provincial administrative and judiciary structure in Ottoman-governed Bulgaria