Description
Product ID: | 9781107504158 |
Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
Country of Manufacture: | US |
Title: | Citizens without Nations |
Subtitle: | Urban Citizenship in Europe and the World, c.1000–1789 |
Authors: | Author: Maarten Prak |
Page Count: | 442 |
Subjects: | General and world history, General & world history, European history, History, History, History, Civics and citizenship, European history, Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Civil rights & citizenship |
Description: | Select Guide Rating An ambitious study of the historical roots, development and role of citizenship during the period from the late Middle Ages to the French Revolution. Citizenship is shown to be not just an exclusively European institution, but one that could be traced to China, the Middle East and the American colonies. Citizenship is at the heart of our contemporary world but it is a particular vision of national citizenship forged in the French Revolution. In Citizens without Nations, Maarten Prak recovers the much longer tradition of urban citizenship across the medieval and early modern world. Ranging from Europe and the American colonies to China and the Middle East, he reveals how the role of ''ordinary people'' in urban politics has been systematically underestimated and how civic institutions such as neighbourhood associations, craft guilds, confraternities and civic militias helped shape local and state politics. By destroying this local form of citizenship, the French Revolution initially made Europe less, rather than more democratic. Understanding citizenship''s longer-term history allows us to change the way we conceive of its future, rethink what it is that makes some societies more successful than others, and whether there are fundamental differences between European and non-European societies. |
Imprint Name: | Cambridge University Press |
Publisher Name: | Cambridge University Press |
Country of Publication: | GB |
Publishing Date: | 2018-08-16 |