Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Daniel R. Curtis, Coping with crisis: the resilience and vulnerability of pre-industrial settlements
(Farnham: Ashgate, 2014. Pp. xx + 381. 48 figs. 29 tabs. ISBN 9781472420046 Hbk. 80)
contrast the range of resilience. Each study can be seen in the context of one of the
exogenous factors discussed in the introduction: the effect of urbanization (urban expro-
priation) in the study of Florence and its hinterlands, 13301580; environmental impact
flooding in the case of the Dutch Betuwe, 13001600 (and partially at Oldambt,
Groningen, 17001900); the direct or indirect use of a burgeoning states powers as with
the Apulian region in the Kingdom of Naples, 16001900; and the demographic pressure
on the resources of Cambridgeshire, 12001340. The agrarian character of each region is
then compared to the four ideal theoretical types to estimate the predictive efficacy of the
framework. Six of the nine cases reflected the types in terms of property, power, and
resource management and seven matched the ideals in terms of resilience. The two/three
outliers were on the border of two types. One, the Oldambt, was an anomaly and the
mismatch is explained by the inability of the model to accommodate the complexity of the
societal structure, described as a society within a society which had a dual economy.
However, as Curtis no doubt realizes, he was able to present this complexity because the
study was based on his extended work in the Groningen archives; and may indicate that
levels of information determine the goodness of theoretical fit. In the Cambridgeshire
cases, a similarity was noted in manorial structure that, on more detailed investigation, was
found to be misleading.
Curtiss stimulating work provokes such concerns and a wish for further work. Within
the studies broad chronological range subsidiary trends are evident, such as the cycles of
growth and decline identified in the Betuwe. The scale, speed, and synchronicity of such
changes within regions need further investigation and could refine the character of resili-
ence. This matter may affect discussions about agency. Recognizing endogenous change
through property, power, and land use tends to identify the protagonists in terms of groups
or classes rather than individuals or families, and it is the latter that may account for any
variation in the speed and scale of agrarian change.
Concentrating on settlement as a means of understanding agrarian change offers impor-
tant new insights and should be pursued. A more nuanced appreciation of resilience may
be gained from considering the totality of settlement variation in an area: recent work
shows that most European regions have a variety of nucleated and dispersed settlement,
even those within a village belt: investigating the socio-economic implications of such
variation would inform the overall framework: the study of Apulia shows a significant
settlement shift, with trulli in the fields becoming a new form, but was this change common
and contemporaneous throughout the region or socially specific, reflecting peasant involve-
ment with viticulture?
Placing settlements and their capacity for survival at the forefront of rural research is to
be welcomed and raises the possibility of a greater and more integrated understanding of
pre-industrial societies.
Jeff Flynn-Paul, ed., War, entrepreneurs and the state in Europe and the Mediterranean
13001800 (Leiden: Brill, 2014. Pp. xii + 356. 4 figs. 9 tabs. ISBN 9789004243644 Hbk.
168)
For two reasons, this is an important but deceptively titled collection of essays. First, its
title might mislead economic and business historians into an expectation that a distin-
guished group of European and Ottoman historians are simply addressing themes, ques-
tions, and problems that fall within the familiar boundaries of traditional concerns dealing
with entrepreneurship as a factor of production. They do so only to the degree that they
expose the differences between the contexts within which businessmen organized the
Economic History Society 2015 Economic History Review, 68, 3 (2015)