What do you think?
Rate this book
The City-State in Europe, 1000-1600: Hinterland, Territory, Region
No detailed comparison of the city-state in medieval Europe has been undertaken over the last century. Research has concentrated on the role of city-states and their republican polities as harbingers of the modern state, or else on their artistic and cultural achievements, above all in Italy. Much less attention has been devoted to the cities' territorial expansion: why, how, and with what consequences cities in the urban belt, stretching from central and northern Italy over the Alps to Switzerland, Germany, and the low countries, succeeded (or failed) in constructing sovereign polities, with or without dependent territories.
Tom Scott goes beyond the customary focus on the leading Italian city-states to include, for the first time, detailed coverage of the Swiss city-states and the imperial cities of Germany. He criticizes current typologies of the city-state in Europe advanced by political and social scientists to suggest that the city-state was not a spent force in early modern Europe, but rather survived by transformation and adaption. He puts forward instead a typology which embraces both time and space by arguing for a regional framework for analysis which does not treat city-states in isolation but within a wider geopolitical setting.
Tom Scott goes beyond the customary focus on the leading Italian city-states to include, for the first time, detailed coverage of the Swiss city-states and the imperial cities of Germany. He criticizes current typologies of the city-state in Europe advanced by political and social scientists to suggest that the city-state was not a spent force in early modern Europe, but rather survived by transformation and adaption. He puts forward instead a typology which embraces both time and space by arguing for a regional framework for analysis which does not treat city-states in isolation but within a wider geopolitical setting.
- GenresMedieval History
396 pages, Hardcover
First published February 9, 2012
About the author
Tom Scott
15 books6 followers(NB. There are several authors with the same name.) This the author page for Tom Scott, historian, MA, PhD, LittD, FRSA. Honorary Professor, University of St Andrews.
Before joining the Institute of Reformation Studies in St Andrews in 2004, Tom Scott was based in the School of History at the University of Liverpool. Before that he was a research fellow at Clare College, Cambridge.
Tom Scott has worked principally on social and economic issues in the German Reformation, including the Peasants’ War, and more generally on town-country relations, regional economic systems, and regional identity. In 1997 his monograph Regional Identity and Economic Change: The Upper Rhine, 1450‒1600 was published by Oxford University Press. A volume of fifteen essays on Town, Country, and Regions in Reformation Germany followed in 2005 (Brill Publishers). More recently he has published The City-State in Europe, 1000-1600: Hinterland‒Territory‒Region (OUP, 2012), and, in the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute series, The Early Reformation in Germany between Secular Impact and Radical Vision (Ashgate Publishers, 2013). He has just published The Swiss and their Neighbours, 1460-1560. Between Accommodation and Aggression (OUP, 2017).
As well as major articles on ‘The Agrarian West’ (Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 2015) and ‘The Economic Policies of the Regional City-States of Renaissance Italy’ (Quaderni Storici, 145 (2014)), he has recently written surveys on Unresolved Problems in the German Peasants’ War, the Urban Reformation in Germany, and ‘The Problem of Nationalism in the Early Reformation’ (Renaissance and Reformation, Autumn 2015), as well as contributing to the forum on Peter Wilson’s Heart of Europe (Central European History, Autumn 2017).
His current research project focuses on the politics of the Swiss Confederation in the first half of the sixteenth century.
Before joining the Institute of Reformation Studies in St Andrews in 2004, Tom Scott was based in the School of History at the University of Liverpool. Before that he was a research fellow at Clare College, Cambridge.
Tom Scott has worked principally on social and economic issues in the German Reformation, including the Peasants’ War, and more generally on town-country relations, regional economic systems, and regional identity. In 1997 his monograph Regional Identity and Economic Change: The Upper Rhine, 1450‒1600 was published by Oxford University Press. A volume of fifteen essays on Town, Country, and Regions in Reformation Germany followed in 2005 (Brill Publishers). More recently he has published The City-State in Europe, 1000-1600: Hinterland‒Territory‒Region (OUP, 2012), and, in the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute series, The Early Reformation in Germany between Secular Impact and Radical Vision (Ashgate Publishers, 2013). He has just published The Swiss and their Neighbours, 1460-1560. Between Accommodation and Aggression (OUP, 2017).
As well as major articles on ‘The Agrarian West’ (Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 2015) and ‘The Economic Policies of the Regional City-States of Renaissance Italy’ (Quaderni Storici, 145 (2014)), he has recently written surveys on Unresolved Problems in the German Peasants’ War, the Urban Reformation in Germany, and ‘The Problem of Nationalism in the Early Reformation’ (Renaissance and Reformation, Autumn 2015), as well as contributing to the forum on Peter Wilson’s Heart of Europe (Central European History, Autumn 2017).
His current research project focuses on the politics of the Swiss Confederation in the first half of the sixteenth century.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 10, 2018
As the book description states, it is "detailed." It's not that all of the many city-states he discusses are fascinating, its just great to see the incredible variety of methods of governance and expansion used by them. His focus on the Swiss, something of a model for many libertarians including me, did stand out though. As he explains: "The one area of the German-speaking lands where regional peace-keeping leagues provided the foundation for a confederal state was Switzerland. Its mainsprings have been made harder to grasp by the dominance, until very recently, of a nationalist historiography which saw in the oath sworn on the Rutli meadow in August 1291 by the men of Uri, Schwyz, and Nidwalden the constitutive act of the Helvetic Confederation by freedom-loving and democratic peasants seeking to throw off the yoke of Habsburg overlordship." He goes on to say this myth has been "utterly demolished by serious scholars" and according to another scholar, the Swiss political arrangement "took place in circumstances impossible to repeat." You can say that again! In the conclusion he explains that in fact "The plain truth is that foreign powers . . . seldom saw much to be gained by locking horns with turbulent Swiss peasants."
Sincerely,
Sincerely,
Displaying 1 of 1 review