Servants in Rural Europe

Servants in Rural Europe PDF Author: Jane Whittle
Publisher: People, Markets, Goods: Econom
ISBN: 9781783272396
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

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Book Description
This is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Live-in servants were a distinctive element of early modern society. They were typically young adults aged between 16 and 24 who lived and worked in other people's households before marriage. Servants tended to be employed for long periods, several months to years at a time, and were paid with food and lodging as well as cash wages. Both women and men worked as servants in large numbers. Unlike domestic servants in towns and wealthy households, rural servants typically worked on farms and were an important element of the agricultural workforce. Historians have viewed service as a distinct life-cycle stage between childhood and marriage. It brought both freedom and servility for young people. It allowed them to leave home and earn a living before marriage, whilst learning a range of agricultural and craft skills which reduced their dependence on their parents and increased their choice in marriage partners. Still, servants had limited rights: they were under the authority of their employer, with a similar legal status to children. In many countries the employment of servants was tightly controlled by law. Servants could demand their wages, and leave when the contract ended, but had to work long hours and had little say in their work tasks during employment. While some servants effectively became family members, trusted and cared for, others were abused physically and sexually by their employers. This collection features a range of methodologies, reflecting the variety of source materials and approaches available to historians of this topic in a range of European countries and time periods. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the strong common themes that emerge from studying servants and will be of particular interest to historians of work, gender, the family, agriculture, economic development, youth and social structure. JANE WHITTLE is Professor of Rural History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: CHRISTINE FERTIG, JEREMY HAYHOE, SARAH HOLLAND, THIJS LAMBRECHT, CHARMIAN MANSELL, HANNE ØSTHUS, RICHARD PAPING, CRISTINA PRYTZ, RAFFAELLA SARTI, CAROLINA UPPENBERG, LIES VERVAET, JANE WHITTLE

Servants in Rural Europe

Servants in Rural Europe PDF Author: Jane Whittle
Publisher: People, Markets, Goods: Econom
ISBN: 9781783272396
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book

Book Description
This is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Live-in servants were a distinctive element of early modern society. They were typically young adults aged between 16 and 24 who lived and worked in other people's households before marriage. Servants tended to be employed for long periods, several months to years at a time, and were paid with food and lodging as well as cash wages. Both women and men worked as servants in large numbers. Unlike domestic servants in towns and wealthy households, rural servants typically worked on farms and were an important element of the agricultural workforce. Historians have viewed service as a distinct life-cycle stage between childhood and marriage. It brought both freedom and servility for young people. It allowed them to leave home and earn a living before marriage, whilst learning a range of agricultural and craft skills which reduced their dependence on their parents and increased their choice in marriage partners. Still, servants had limited rights: they were under the authority of their employer, with a similar legal status to children. In many countries the employment of servants was tightly controlled by law. Servants could demand their wages, and leave when the contract ended, but had to work long hours and had little say in their work tasks during employment. While some servants effectively became family members, trusted and cared for, others were abused physically and sexually by their employers. This collection features a range of methodologies, reflecting the variety of source materials and approaches available to historians of this topic in a range of European countries and time periods. Nonetheless, it demonstrates the strong common themes that emerge from studying servants and will be of particular interest to historians of work, gender, the family, agriculture, economic development, youth and social structure. JANE WHITTLE is Professor of Rural History at the University of Exeter. Contributors: CHRISTINE FERTIG, JEREMY HAYHOE, SARAH HOLLAND, THIJS LAMBRECHT, CHARMIAN MANSELL, HANNE ØSTHUS, RICHARD PAPING, CRISTINA PRYTZ, RAFFAELLA SARTI, CAROLINA UPPENBERG, LIES VERVAET, JANE WHITTLE

Landless Households in Rural Europe, 1600-1900

Landless Households in Rural Europe, 1600-1900 PDF Author: Christine Fertig
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 178327722X
Category : Europe
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
First comparative study of landless households brings out their major role in European history and society.

The Making of Rural Europe

The Making of Rural Europe PDF Author: Helen Douglas-Irvine
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Land tenure
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description


A Social History of Western Europe, 1450-1720

A Social History of Western Europe, 1450-1720 PDF Author: Sheldon J. Watts
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351720392
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This thoroughly readable and stimulating social history of Western Europe, first published in 1984, explores the family, religion and the supernatural, and the social structure and social controls of rural society. This title will be of interest not only to students, but to anyone who is anxious to understand the lives – both internal and external – of rural people in his fascinating period that is so central to everyone’s past.

Agricultural Knowledge Networks in Rural Europe, 1700-2000

Agricultural Knowledge Networks in Rural Europe, 1700-2000 PDF Author: Yves Segers
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1783277122
Category : Agricultural innovations
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
An examination of how farming expertise could be shared and extended, over four centuries.

Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England

Servants in Husbandry in Early Modern England PDF Author: Ann Kussmaul
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521235662
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book explores servants in husbandry and considers the wider historiographical implications.

The Routledge History of the Domestic Sphere in Europe

The Routledge History of the Domestic Sphere in Europe PDF Author: Joachim Eibach
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429633238
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
This book addresses the multifaceted history of the domestic sphere in Europe from the Age of Reformation to the emergence of modern society. By focusing on daily practice, interaction and social relations, it shows continuities and social change in European history from an interior perspective. The Routledge History of the Domestic Sphere in Europe contains a variety of approaches from different regions that each pose a challenge to commonplace views such as the emergence of confessional cultures, of private life, and of separate spheres of men and women. By analyzing a plethora of manifold sources including diaries, court records, paintings and domestic advice literature, this volume provides an overview of the domestic sphere as a location of work and consumption, conflict and cooperation, emotions and intimacy, and devotion and education. The book sheds light on changing relations between spouses, parents and children, masters and servants or apprentices, and humans and animals or plants, thereby exceeding the notion of the modern nuclear family. This volume will be of great use to upper-level graduates, postgraduates and experienced scholars interested in the history of family, household, social space, gender, emotions, material culture, work and private life in early modern and nineteenth-century Europe.

Marriage and Rural Economy

Marriage and Rural Economy PDF Author: Isabelle Devos
Publisher: Brepols Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The history of marriage in Western Europe, because of its peculiarities when viewed in a global setting, compels attention. This volume examines rural marriage patterns in the long run, relating these to changing economic conditions in the North Sea area, from c. 1400 to the present. More than thirty years after Hajnal's path-breaking publication it presents a state of the art as regards the study of the European Marriage Pattern in Ireland, Scotland, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia. By examining different forms of rural economy such as peasant farming, capitalist farming, prot-industry and other systems of production with differing implications for marriage and family formation, demographic and economic mechanisms emerge more clearly. Turning from description to explanation, a complex of interacting factors which regulate the formation of new households is identified and new directions into the research of this phenomenon are promoted. This volume comprises 11 article-chapters and introduction and conclusion and is the result of international collaboration from members of the CORN network. It is a work of richness, subtlety and historical depth, which makes essential reading for those interested in the evolution of marriage patterns, in the distant past and in more recent times.

Global Agricultural Workers from the 17th to the 21st Century

Global Agricultural Workers from the 17th to the 21st Century PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900452942X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
Agricultural workers have long been underrepresented in labour history. This volume aims to change this by bringing together a collection of studies on the largest group of the global work force. The contributions cover the period from the early modern to the present – a period when the emergence and consolidation of capitalism has transformed rural areas all over the globe. Three questions have guided the approach and the structure of this volume. First, how and why have peasant families managed to survive under conditions of advancing commercialisation and industrialisation? Second, why have coercive labour relations been so persistent in the agricultural sector and third, what was the role of states in the recruitment of agricultural workers? Contributors are: Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Josef Ehmer, Katherine Jellison, Juan Carmona, James Simpson, Sophie Elpers, Debojyoti Das, Lozaan Khumbah, Karl Heinz Arenz, Leida Fernandez-Prieto, Rachel Kurian, Rafael Marquese, Bruno Gabriel Witzel de Souza, Rogério Naques Faleiros, Alessandro Stanziani, Alexander Keese, Dina Bolokan, and Janina Puder.

Household Servants in Early Modern Domestic Tragedy

Household Servants in Early Modern Domestic Tragedy PDF Author: Iman Sheeha
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100007451X
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Household Servants in Early Modern Domestic Tragedy considerably advances existing scholarship on the institution of service in early modern culture and as represented on the early modern stage. With its focus on the homes of the middling sorts, to whom the protagonists of domestic tragedy belong, the book expands our understanding of employer-servant relationships beyond elite and aristocratic circles, the focus of previous studies. Drawing on early modern advice literature, household guides, domestic manuals, sermons, treatises, proverbs, mothers’ legacies, funeral sermons, diaries, letters, and jest books as well as making use of the recent findings by social and cultural historians of early modern England, the book examines the consequences of disordered domesticity for the master-servant relationship. This study nuances the picture of domestic servants constructed by both early modern moralists and modern scholarship, arguing against overarching, reductive narratives. The book argues that the experience of household service as depicted in domestic tragedy, like in real life, was complex and varied and that there was no typical experience of service.