Footnote:
Includes bibliographical references and index. - Description based on Publisher website; title from home page (viewed on May 21, 2022)
Description:
This book appraises the role of peasants in the past. Historians and archaeologists, after disparaging and ignoring peasants, are treating them more positively, and this book is taking that view forwards. Using as its example the west midlands of England, this book examines peasant society, in relation to their social superiors (their lords), their neighbours, and their households and finds them making decisions and taking options to improve their lives. Peasants played an active role in the development of towns, both by migrating into urban settings, but also trading actively in urban markets. Industry in the countryside was not imposed on the rural population, but often the result of peasant enterprise and flexibility. If we examine peasant attitudes and mentalities we find them engaging in political life, making a major contribution to religion, recognizing the need to conserve the environment, and balancing the interests of individuals with those of the communities in which they lived. Many features of our world have medieval roots, and peasants played an important part in the development of the rural landscape, participation of ordinary people in government, parish church buildings, towns, and social welfare. The evidence to support this peasant-centred view has to be recovered by imaginative interpretation, and by using every type of source, including the testimony of archaeology and landscape. This work is intended to be accessible to a wide readership.