One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in th... more One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in the ®eld continue to be debated. In a stimulating review article by J.H. Mundy,`Philip Jones and the medieval Italian city-state', J. of European Economic History, 28 (1999), 185±200, one distinguished scholar is taxed for holding views now dismissed by some, but of which he is by no means a unique surviving representative. One of these views assumes a clear distinction between the antique city, supposedly a bureaucratic centre with limited economic functions, and the medieval city, as the home of industrious artisans and nascent capitalism. The image of the non-pro®t-making ancient town may be overly indebted to the nature of the literary sources and to the prevalent interests of classicists; but, although many would now agree that both the elements in the above equation need qualifying, a more focused comparison is presently lacking, and a ®ne book is still waiting to be written on the transition from the ancient world to the middle ages in urban history. Chronologically speaking, ®fth-century events now appear to have interrupted urban life everywhere. This hiatus is exempli®ed at York, which is subjected to important fresh analysis by C. Norton,`The Anglo-Saxon cathedral at York and the topography of the Anglian city', J. of the British Archaeological Association, 151 (1998), 1±42. Norton, in fact, makes a case for the origins of York's medieval revival at an earlier date than previously imagined; but at the same time he emphasizes the physical and cultural break with the Roman past. The site of the pre-Viking age cathedral, which became the dominant factor York's early medieval topography, had no signi®cance within the late Roman city. The picture is sketched of an important urban centre before the Scandinavians came to what they would call Yorvic, but one whose relationship with the antique past of the Roman Eboracum would continue to be ambivalent. An equally clear post-Roman interruption of urban life is evident elsewhere in S.W. Ward,`The archaeology of medieval Chester: a review', Transactions of the Chester Archaeological Society,7 3 (1998 for 1994/95), 31±62. Another view challenged by Mundy and attributed by him, like the ®rst, to the continuing strength of a nineteenth-century liberal tradition, sees a clear distinction between the medieval town and the countryside. This, certainly, is a presupposition which has come in for assault over several decades. For a long time, prosopographical studies have shown the ties of property ownership and regional commerce which bound urban elites to their hinterlands. A recent case in point is P. Daileader,`Town and countryside in northeastern Catalonia,
One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in th... more One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in the ®eld continue to be debated. In a stimulating review article by J.H. Mundy,`Philip Jones and the medieval Italian city-state', J. of European Economic History, 28 (1999), 185±200, one distinguished scholar is taxed for holding views now dismissed by some, but of which he is by no means a unique surviving representative. One of these views assumes a clear distinction between the antique city, supposedly a bureaucratic centre with limited economic functions, and the medieval city, as the home of industrious artisans and nascent capitalism. The image of the non-pro®t-making ancient town may be overly indebted to the nature of the literary sources and to the prevalent interests of classicists; but, although many would now agree that both the elements in the above equation need qualifying, a more focused comparison is presently lacking, and a ®ne book is still waiting to be written on the transition from the ancient world to the middle ages in urban history. Chronologically speaking, ®fth-century events now appear to have interrupted urban life everywhere. This hiatus is exempli®ed at York, which is subjected to important fresh analysis by C. Norton,`The Anglo-Saxon cathedral at York and the topography of the Anglian city', J. of the British Archaeological Association, 151 (1998), 1±42. Norton, in fact, makes a case for the origins of York's medieval revival at an earlier date than previously imagined; but at the same time he emphasizes the physical and cultural break with the Roman past. The site of the pre-Viking age cathedral, which became the dominant factor York's early medieval topography, had no signi®cance within the late Roman city. The picture is sketched of an important urban centre before the Scandinavians came to what they would call Yorvic, but one whose relationship with the antique past of the Roman Eboracum would continue to be ambivalent. An equally clear post-Roman interruption of urban life is evident elsewhere in S.W. Ward,`The archaeology of medieval Chester: a review', Transactions of the Chester Archaeological Society,7 3 (1998 for 1994/95), 31±62. Another view challenged by Mundy and attributed by him, like the ®rst, to the continuing strength of a nineteenth-century liberal tradition, sees a clear distinction between the medieval town and the countryside. This, certainly, is a presupposition which has come in for assault over several decades. For a long time, prosopographical studies have shown the ties of property ownership and regional commerce which bound urban elites to their hinterlands. A recent case in point is P. Daileader,`Town and countryside in northeastern Catalonia,
This article traces the evolution of the idea of degeneration in urban Britain between the early ... more This article traces the evolution of the idea of degeneration in urban Britain between the early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rejecting approaches that reduce this richly eclectic, though savagely negative, world-view to a random bundle of prejudices underpinning the emergence of the ‘science’ of eugenics, the article focuses on distinctive environmental, medical and anti-urban determinants. Strong emphasis is also placed on shifting interactions between moral and medico-environmental values and prescriptions which served as legitimation for the racially inflected view that residual elements of the inner city working class might soon be doomed to physiological and hereditary extinction.
One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in th... more One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in the ®eld continue to be debated. In a stimulating review article by J.H. Mundy,`Philip Jones and the medieval Italian city-state', J. of European Economic History, 28 (1999), 185±200, one distinguished scholar is taxed for holding views now dismissed by some, but of which he is by no means a unique surviving representative. One of these views assumes a clear distinction between the antique city, supposedly a bureaucratic centre with limited economic functions, and the medieval city, as the home of industrious artisans and nascent capitalism. The image of the non-pro®t-making ancient town may be overly indebted to the nature of the literary sources and to the prevalent interests of classicists; but, although many would now agree that both the elements in the above equation need qualifying, a more focused comparison is presently lacking, and a ®ne book is still waiting to be written on the transition from the ancient world to the middle ages in urban history. Chronologically speaking, ®fth-century events now appear to have interrupted urban life everywhere. This hiatus is exempli®ed at York, which is subjected to important fresh analysis by C. Norton,`The Anglo-Saxon cathedral at York and the topography of the Anglian city', J. of the British Archaeological Association, 151 (1998), 1±42. Norton, in fact, makes a case for the origins of York's medieval revival at an earlier date than previously imagined; but at the same time he emphasizes the physical and cultural break with the Roman past. The site of the pre-Viking age cathedral, which became the dominant factor York's early medieval topography, had no signi®cance within the late Roman city. The picture is sketched of an important urban centre before the Scandinavians came to what they would call Yorvic, but one whose relationship with the antique past of the Roman Eboracum would continue to be ambivalent. An equally clear post-Roman interruption of urban life is evident elsewhere in S.W. Ward,`The archaeology of medieval Chester: a review', Transactions of the Chester Archaeological Society,7 3 (1998 for 1994/95), 31±62. Another view challenged by Mundy and attributed by him, like the ®rst, to the continuing strength of a nineteenth-century liberal tradition, sees a clear distinction between the medieval town and the countryside. This, certainly, is a presupposition which has come in for assault over several decades. For a long time, prosopographical studies have shown the ties of property ownership and regional commerce which bound urban elites to their hinterlands. A recent case in point is P. Daileader,`Town and countryside in northeastern Catalonia,
One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in th... more One of the attractions of medieval urban history is the fact that major conceptual problems in the ®eld continue to be debated. In a stimulating review article by J.H. Mundy,`Philip Jones and the medieval Italian city-state', J. of European Economic History, 28 (1999), 185±200, one distinguished scholar is taxed for holding views now dismissed by some, but of which he is by no means a unique surviving representative. One of these views assumes a clear distinction between the antique city, supposedly a bureaucratic centre with limited economic functions, and the medieval city, as the home of industrious artisans and nascent capitalism. The image of the non-pro®t-making ancient town may be overly indebted to the nature of the literary sources and to the prevalent interests of classicists; but, although many would now agree that both the elements in the above equation need qualifying, a more focused comparison is presently lacking, and a ®ne book is still waiting to be written on the transition from the ancient world to the middle ages in urban history. Chronologically speaking, ®fth-century events now appear to have interrupted urban life everywhere. This hiatus is exempli®ed at York, which is subjected to important fresh analysis by C. Norton,`The Anglo-Saxon cathedral at York and the topography of the Anglian city', J. of the British Archaeological Association, 151 (1998), 1±42. Norton, in fact, makes a case for the origins of York's medieval revival at an earlier date than previously imagined; but at the same time he emphasizes the physical and cultural break with the Roman past. The site of the pre-Viking age cathedral, which became the dominant factor York's early medieval topography, had no signi®cance within the late Roman city. The picture is sketched of an important urban centre before the Scandinavians came to what they would call Yorvic, but one whose relationship with the antique past of the Roman Eboracum would continue to be ambivalent. An equally clear post-Roman interruption of urban life is evident elsewhere in S.W. Ward,`The archaeology of medieval Chester: a review', Transactions of the Chester Archaeological Society,7 3 (1998 for 1994/95), 31±62. Another view challenged by Mundy and attributed by him, like the ®rst, to the continuing strength of a nineteenth-century liberal tradition, sees a clear distinction between the medieval town and the countryside. This, certainly, is a presupposition which has come in for assault over several decades. For a long time, prosopographical studies have shown the ties of property ownership and regional commerce which bound urban elites to their hinterlands. A recent case in point is P. Daileader,`Town and countryside in northeastern Catalonia,
This article traces the evolution of the idea of degeneration in urban Britain between the early ... more This article traces the evolution of the idea of degeneration in urban Britain between the early nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rejecting approaches that reduce this richly eclectic, though savagely negative, world-view to a random bundle of prejudices underpinning the emergence of the ‘science’ of eugenics, the article focuses on distinctive environmental, medical and anti-urban determinants. Strong emphasis is also placed on shifting interactions between moral and medico-environmental values and prescriptions which served as legitimation for the racially inflected view that residual elements of the inner city working class might soon be doomed to physiological and hereditary extinction.
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