The Village and the Outside World in Golden Age Castile: Mobility and Migration in Everyday Rural Life

by David E. Vassberg

Overview

This book, based on a vast range of documentary and secondary sources, shatters the disproven but persistent myth of the closed immobile village with sedentary populations in the early modern period. Professor Vassberg demonstrates that even in traditionalist Spain, villagers were highly migratory, and had frequent contact with the outside world. Because of its rich accounts about ordinary people making decisions in everyday life, the book is fascinating reading. Topics range from carpenters to mule trains, and from humble peasants to titled aristocrats. Although the focus is on Spain, the book will be useful for comparison with other European countries and with Latin America.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521527132
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/28/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. The village community; 2. Market contacts with the outside world; 3. Manufacturing and artisanal contacts with the outside world; 4. In-migration and out-migration; 5. Family relations with the outside world; 6. Relations with the state; 7. Contacts with travellers and 'aliens'; 8. Additional contacts with the outside world; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"The usefulness of the book for all readers is enhanced by numerous maps and tables, glossary and complete bibliographic apparatus." K. Kennelly, Choice

"Provides an excellent comparative perspective for students of rural life and social change everywhere." Carla Rahn Phillips, Colonial Latin American Review

"In his fine book, David E. Vassberg discusses the degree and nature of contact early modern Castilian villages had with the outside world....embraces a revisionist view of Castile as a place where people took initiative in making decisions....organizes his book as a survey of various modes of contact between Castilian villages and the outside world." Book Reviews

"David E. Vassberg's The Village and the Outside World in Golden Age Castile is a welcome addition to the historiography of early modern Spain....an intriguing and provocative picture of the varied elements that defined and underlay village life. Vassberg's highly readable book provides valuable insights into the nature and functioning of Castile's rural communities and their relationship to the cities and the state as well as to one another." Ida Altman, Journal of Modern History

"In his fine book, David E. Vassberg discusses the degree and nature of contact early modern Castilian villages had with the outside world." Akira Motomura, Jrnl of Eco Hist

"The book is a welcome addition o the historiography of early modern Spain...an intriguing and provocative picture of the varied elements that defined and underlay village life. Vassberg's highly readable book provides valuable insights into the nature and functioning of Castile's rural communities and their relationships to the cities and the state as well as to one another." Chronicle & Willacy County News

"In this volume, David E. Vassberg presents an important compendium of materials, from both primary and secondary sources, to show that experience of the outside world was an ordinary part of Castilian village life in the Golden Age and migration "a normal structural characteristic of society"(p. 175)." Susan Tax Freeman, American Historical Review

From the Publisher