Peasants in the Middle Ages (review)

166 Reviews from arguments of self-defence to resistance. She suggests a series of steps in the direction of a right to rebel (p. 42). Yet only once does she cite a pamphlet couching a justification for violence in terms of resistance (p. 40), and only once, if heavy irony and litotes are discounted, is there a justification for rebellion (p. 60). Rather, where w e find it resistance is still a term rapidly to be converted into self-defence. Tyrannicide is its ultimate expression and rebellion remains in an accusatory register. What Parrow actually shows is not a shift from self-defence to resistance but an increasing reliance on an extensive social or communal self whose agents may act pre-emptively if necessary in some public interest. This continuing if euphemistic reliance is required precisely by the need to avoid the accusation of rebellion. It is little wonder that men on ah sides appealed to the law whenever they could and accused then opponents of breaking it first. Parrow's accurate translations of often rare documents make this quite clear, despite the suggestions of a misleading trajectory. If this is put aside, we are left with an elegant synthesis of the materials desperate men juggled before the law, setting an ominous precedent for the following century. Conal Condren School of Political Science University of N e w South Wales Rosener, Werner, Peasants in the Middle Ages, trans. Alexander Stutzer, Cambridge and Oxford, Polity Press, 1992; cloth; pp. xi, 338; 42 figures; R.R.P. AUS$145.00 [distributed in Australia by Allen & Unwin]. This survey of German peasant life in the Middle Ages, fust published in German in 1985, is commendably lucid and weU organized. It begins with a discussion of the origins and development of the peasantry in early medieval Germany. Rosener's general approach wiU be famUiar to readers of Duby's Guerriers et paysans, but his survey of the German structures will nonetheless be of considerable value. It concludes with a hurried survey of the agrarian crisis of the later Middle Ages. Since Rosener has done valuable specialist work in this field, this part of the book is very disappointing. There is no sustained analysis of the impact of the Black Death on the rural economy and society, and there is no significant engagement with recent discussion of the origins of the 'second serfdom' in eastern Germany. Reviews 167 The main body of the work consists of four groups of chapters on peasant life in the High Middle Ages. In thefirstRosener discusses the process of land-clearance and setdement in Germany, seeing the colonization process in the east as part of general expansionary forces in medieval Europe, and draws on a range of evidence, archaeological as well as legal, to explore patterns of vUlage development and peasant housing. In the next he moves on to discuss aspects of peasant hfe and work, including an engaging chapter on clothes and food in addition to important chapters on agricultural techniques and the organization of labour. The theme of the following group is social organization. There are useful chapters which discuss the communities of neighbourhood and village, family and kinship, and stratification among the German peasantry. In the last group Rosener focuses on manorial organization, issues of freedom and servitude, and peasant revolts and resistance. All this is very useful. Rosener provides a clear summary of the state of knowledge and a lucid guide to the complexities of the German scene. The period covered is defined as 1000-1400 and, though in practice the focus is on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there is an inevitable tendency to present too static a picture of peasant life. The problem is compounded by the use of sources from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The quality of the pictorial evidence for German peasant life in the age of humanism and reform is most impressive, and the book is greatly enlivened by the selection of engravings; however, such images demand careful contextualization and detailed analysis. The main disappointment remains Rosener's reluctance toriseabove a stock-taking exercise. Even in relation to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, on which the book is strongest...