For the Common Good: Popular Politics in Barcelona, 1580-1640 (review)

The author of this fine book proposes to incorporate popular politics in the larger political history of early modern Europe by looking at Barcelona's popular politics during the sixty years before the outbreak of the Catalan Revolt. Corteguera focuses his research and analysis on the city's artisans, both male and female. This strategy alone makes the book distinct from previous studies of the revolt and leads Corteguera to a new and powerful conceptualization of popular politics. He argues that Catalans of every class, from farmers and artisans to the noble elite, shared political and legal self-identities as loyal subjects of the king and worthy citizens of a privileged city. They engaged in differing behaviors—harvesters and journeymen rioting, masters organizing confraternity petitions and delegations, and elites maintaining civil order and the status quo—all in order to achieve the same goal of protecting Barcelona's privileges and autonomy.

In an especially pointed and well-articulated chapter entitled "Who Speaks for the People of Barcelona?" Corteguera argues that artisans shared basic conceptions of justice with their erudite, elite contemporaries. In particular, he demolishes the prior interpretation that popular riots are evidence of a distinct, latent "people's justice" that erupted in opposition to elite social control of the lower classes. Instead, he shows that rioters and rulers and petitioners and authorities all shared a single set of values, although they did not always agree on how to achieve them or distribute their benefits.

Corteguera modifies the conceptualizations now current in the history of the mob by providing a cautionary analysis of motivations. Through textual examination, Corteguera ascertains that artisans and every level of Catalan society equated privilege with justice. Divisions within Barcelona did not arise from attacks on privilege, but revolved around whose privileges would be protected or how the city's privileges should be applied. This point throws into question the assumption that vast differences in behavior arise out of equally vast differences in values or motivations.

Corteguera demonstrates that city, Catalan, and royal authorities all had to coax support from the people. The rulers understood and accepted that winning popular support was important and not entirely assured. This interpretation turns the people from a pawn used by larger forces to a political player in its own right that had to be harangued, tamed, and won over.

Corteguera's interpretation of the Barcelona example and revision of the larger European picture are credible and persuasive because hemakes no exaggerated claims. The analysis is closely based on impressive and meticulous archival research. He skillfully extracts a great deal fromdifficult, sparse, and scattered documents. Equally important, Corteguera presents all this difficult and sophisticated argument with exceptional clarity and verve.

This study of artisans provides a nuanced and convincing picture of the relationship between popular discontent and elite government, and establishes Corteguera as a major interpreter of popular politics in early modern Europe.