The First European Revolution - (Making of Europe) by Robert I Moore (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

This book provides a radical reassessment of Europe from the late tenth to the early thirteenth centuries.

From the Back Cover

This book provides a radical reassessment of Europe from the late tenth to the early thirteenth centuries. Professor Moore argues that the period witnessed the first true revolution in European society, characterized by a transformation in the economy, in family structures, and in the sources of power and the means by which it was exercised. Together these changes brought into being for the first time an autonomous city-supporting civilization in non-Mediterranean Europe. The circumstances and outcome of this transformation, he demonstrates, not only shaped medieval and modern Europe but established enduring and fundamental characteristics which differentiated Europe from other world civilizations.

The process at the heart of change involved social, cultural and institutional transformations whose implementation required extensive popular participation. On occasion it required the use or threat of popular violence, in part consciously sanctioned and led by some of those challenging for power within the social elite; once the revolution had been achieved this popular enthusiasm had to be subdued and contained. These developments were far from simple and anything but uniform. The differences which resulted both within Europe and between Europe and other world civilizations were of lasting significance.

Review Quotes

"This is a remarkable book... it can function as a synthesis of the best studies for upper-division undergraduates or graduate students. It is so well researched and argued that even though it asks the reader to accept yet one more period as revolutionary, it is entirely convincing." History: Reviews of New Books

"A volume which is consistently intelligent and stimulating, not least because it draws on the insights of social anthropology and of other periods and places in history than its own ... it is the essence of a good book that it should open the reader's mind and sharpen his arguments. By that token this is assuredly a good book." Ecclesiastical History

About the Author

R. I. Moore has been Professor of Medieval History at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne since 1993. He previously taught at Sheffield University, and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago. His previous books include The Birth of Popular Heresy (1975), The Origins of European Dissent (1977) and The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Power and Deviance in Western Europe, 950-1250 (1987). He is also General Editor of the Blackwell History of the World series.