Chris Wickham
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264034
- eISBN:
- 9780191734601
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264034.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter examines the medieval history of Europe within the context of Marxism, discussing the changes in class conflicts and their role in determining the socio-economic developments of European ...
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This chapter examines the medieval history of Europe within the context of Marxism, discussing the changes in class conflicts and their role in determining the socio-economic developments of European countries. It determines the historical contributions Marxism has made to medieval history and the future challenges it has to face. The chapter focuses on Marxist medieval history, which was dominated by the three strands of production in agrarian and feudal societies: slave plantations, peasant farming, and wage labour.Less
This chapter examines the medieval history of Europe within the context of Marxism, discussing the changes in class conflicts and their role in determining the socio-economic developments of European countries. It determines the historical contributions Marxism has made to medieval history and the future challenges it has to face. The chapter focuses on Marxist medieval history, which was dominated by the three strands of production in agrarian and feudal societies: slave plantations, peasant farming, and wage labour.
Kathryn Edgerton-Tarpley
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253025
- eISBN:
- 9780520934221
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253025.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter analyzes how the meaning of a particularly disturbing famine image, that of intrafamilial cannibalism, changed over time. The claim that human flesh was sold in shops and markets during ...
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This chapter analyzes how the meaning of a particularly disturbing famine image, that of intrafamilial cannibalism, changed over time. The claim that human flesh was sold in shops and markets during the disaster appears in many famine texts, as does Liu's description of the progression from eating the dead to killing family members and consuming them. To a greater extent than the sale of women, cannibalism continued to serve as the quintessential emblem of the famine well into the twentieth century. Accounts of cannibalism were employed to represent not only the horror of famine but also the rapacity of the “old feudal society” as a whole. Even today, vivid descriptions of starving family members devouring each other continue to dominate the famine folktales that circulate in Shanxi.Less
This chapter analyzes how the meaning of a particularly disturbing famine image, that of intrafamilial cannibalism, changed over time. The claim that human flesh was sold in shops and markets during the disaster appears in many famine texts, as does Liu's description of the progression from eating the dead to killing family members and consuming them. To a greater extent than the sale of women, cannibalism continued to serve as the quintessential emblem of the famine well into the twentieth century. Accounts of cannibalism were employed to represent not only the horror of famine but also the rapacity of the “old feudal society” as a whole. Even today, vivid descriptions of starving family members devouring each other continue to dominate the famine folktales that circulate in Shanxi.
Peter Dear
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226487335
- eISBN:
- 9780226487359
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226487359.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In its broadest sense, historians and others use “revolution” to indicate some sort of discontinuity, or rupture, as E. J. Hobsbawm noted. But as Hobsbawm also observed, it sometimes takes quite a ...
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In its broadest sense, historians and others use “revolution” to indicate some sort of discontinuity, or rupture, as E. J. Hobsbawm noted. But as Hobsbawm also observed, it sometimes takes quite a long time to certify whether a revolution really did occur at some particular time in the past. From this point of view, the political-social historian—or, to be more precise, the Marxist or crypto-Marxist historian—is reluctant to regard revolutions as being of central, driving importance in the ongoing processes of history. The real historical changes are macrosocial ones, such as the transition from feudal to capitalist societies, and revolutions are simply what Hobsbawm called “incidents in macro-historical change,” the moments at which the rupture of an old and increasingly insupportable system occurs and a new system comes into being to take its place.Less
In its broadest sense, historians and others use “revolution” to indicate some sort of discontinuity, or rupture, as E. J. Hobsbawm noted. But as Hobsbawm also observed, it sometimes takes quite a long time to certify whether a revolution really did occur at some particular time in the past. From this point of view, the political-social historian—or, to be more precise, the Marxist or crypto-Marxist historian—is reluctant to regard revolutions as being of central, driving importance in the ongoing processes of history. The real historical changes are macrosocial ones, such as the transition from feudal to capitalist societies, and revolutions are simply what Hobsbawm called “incidents in macro-historical change,” the moments at which the rupture of an old and increasingly insupportable system occurs and a new system comes into being to take its place.
