The Politics of Provisions: Food Riots, Moral Economy, and Market Transition in England, C. 1550-1850

ISBN-13: 9781138257696 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 324 str.

John Bohstedt

Opis

The 'politics of provisions' - forceful negotiations over sustenance - has created surprising contests in world history, particularly in times of market transition. In England a 'politics of provisions' evolved in a dialogue between popular riots and paternalist subsistence policies from Tudor dearths to the Victorian embrace of free-market doctrines. Hence provision politics was a core ingredient of both state-formation and of the emergence of the first market economy and society in England. This book is the first full-scale critical revision of E.P. Thompson's seminal model of the 'moral economy of the crowd', which has had huge influence across the social sciences. It is the first synthesis of the many dispersed studies of three centuries of marketing and negotiations by riot over subsistence. By explaining such long-term shifts in patterns of political negotiation from parish-pump to Privy Council, this study offers a new view of why food riots were a more compelling and lasting bone of contention than enclosures, wages or votes.

Recenzje

'Politics of Provisions is well-produced... It deserves to be widely read and known. It will be of particular interest to historians interested in the evolution of markets and the role of institutions and in the social and economic history of industrializing England.' EH.Net '... an outstanding book.' International Review of Social History 'The work has many strengths, not least the long perspective it provides on this important subject.' Archiv für Sozialgeschichte 'This is an outstanding volume, crucial for those with interests in crowd politics, protest, and the nature of the marketplace but also colleagues with interests in issues such as the nature of power, representation of the poor, and contemporary understandings of community... Bohstedt’s book is a triumph.' Journal of British Studies

Spis treści

Contents: 'We'd rather be hanged than starved!': the politics of provisions; The genesis of provision politics, 1580-1650; The recession of provision politics, 1650-1739; Bolting mills and marketplaces: the formative generation of provisions politics, 1740-1775; A viable, but doomed, provision politics, 1782-1812; The decadence of the politics of provisions, 1812-67; Conclusions: provision politics from the book of orders to World War One; Bibliography of works cited; Index.

O autorze

John Bohstedt is Professor emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA, and author of Riots and Community Politics in England and Wales, 1790-1810.