Main entry:

Phythian-Adams, Charles, author.

Title & Author:

Desolation of a city : Coventry and the urban crisis of the late Middle Ages / Charles Phythian-Adams.

Publication:

Cambridge, England ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Description:

xx, 350 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Series:

Past and present publications

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 325-337) and index.
Introduction -- Part I. An urban panorama -- Part II. Desolation of a city -- The tempo of decline -- The hastening of decline -- Crisis 1518-25 -- Part III. Anatomy of a city -- Introductory -- The working context -- Formal groups : the household -- Formal groups : the craft fellowship -- Formal groups : gilds and councils -- Formal groups and the citizen's life-cycle -- Informal groupings : social stratification -- Justifications of obedience -- Social mobility -- Informal groupings : the extended family -- Informal groupings : social topography -- Mirrors of a community -- Conclusion on social structure -- Part IV. An anatomy deformed -- Introductory -- A. A penury of people -- The depopulation of households 1520-3 -- The distribution of the poeple -- Servants and the economy -- Children and the future -- Coventry and the size of the late medieval urban household -- B. The distortion of the social structure -- Violence and structural stress 1520-5 -- Matters for reform : the 1530s -- Institutional and social change -- Medieval mirrors shattered -- Part V. Coventry and the urban crisis of the late Middle Ages -- Appendices -- The 1523 enumeration -- The ward listings of 1520 and 1523 : the problems of analysis -- Various overall distributions of persons and households by wards in 1523 -- Suggested adjustments and estimated revisions -- A note on the topography of late medieval Coventry as shown on map 1.

Summary:

"This book is a contribution to both national and local history. Coventry is taken as a richly documented case-study of the crisis which marked the end of the medieval period for many substantial towns. Its demographic and economic decline is followed from the fifteenth century to a dramatic period of short-term crisis between 1518 and 1525. Attention is then focused on the traditional structure of the community: the life-cycles of the citizens are related to the intricate pattern of social positions within a multi-dimensional survey. The author illustrates how the occupants of this structure were depleted by crisis and decline, through devastating depopulation, the attrition of the male labour-force, and the failure of the population to reproduce itself. The results included an uncontrolled insurrectionary riot, the emergence of a radical programme for reform along very early 'Commonwealth' lines in the 1530s and, ultimately, the erosion of the old communal organisation and its ideals"-- Publisher's description.

Resources:
Sample text
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents
Publisher description

ISBN:

052122604X
9780521226042

Subject:

Cities and towns, Medieval Case studies.
Villes Angleterre Cas, Études de.
Villes médiévales Études de cas.
Cities and towns, Medieval
Economic history
Social conditions
Steden.
Sociale geschiedenis.
Middeleeuwen.
Villes Grande-Bretagne Cas, Études de.
Coventry (England) Social conditions.
Coventry (England) Economic conditions.
England Economic conditions 1066-1485.
Coventry (Warwickshire)
Warwickshire Coventry.
Coventry (Angleterre) Conditions sociales.
Coventry (Angleterre) Conditions économiques.
Angleterre Conditions économiques 1066-1485.
England
England Coventry
Coventry (Grande-Bretagne) Conditions sociales.
Coventry (Grande-Bretagne) Conditions économiques.
Grande-Bretagne Conditions économiques 1066-1500.
West Midlands (Metropolitan County) Coventry Social conditions 1500-1530

Form/genre:

Case studies
Études de cas.

Added entries:

Past and present publications.

Holdings:

Location: Library main m 128862
Call No.: WM16043; ID:86-B6698
Status: Available