Popular Culture and Popular Protest in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

<p>This book first published in 1987 looks at the culture of the masses and at the political language and actions of the crowd. It examines the enduring traits of a European demotic culture that was largely non-literate and it then goes on to show how the political outlook of the lower classes arose from the moral attitudes contained in their culture a culture that was deeply suffused by Christianity. Unlike upper-class culture popular culture is resistant to change and has to be studied over a long period – in this case the fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Because its themes – popular social values riot and revolt – are pervasive over both time and space the book’s geographical coverage is extensive taking in most of western and central Europe.</p>