Michael Mitterauer ; translated by Gerald Chapple.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Chicago :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
University of Chicago Press,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2010.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
1 online resource (xxiv, 406 pages)
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
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Rye and oats : the agrarian revolution of the early middle ages -- Manor and hide : the manorial roots of European social structures -- The conjugal family and bilateral kinship : social flexibility through looser ties of descent -- The feudal system and the estates : a special path of feudalism -- The papal church and universal religious orders : Western Christendom as a highly organized religious community -- The Crusades and protocolonialism : the roots of European expansionism -- Preaching and printing : early modes of mass communication -- "Through what concatenation of circumstances --?" : interacting determinants of Europe's special path.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
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Why did capitalism and colonialism arise in Europe and not elsewhere? Why were parliamentarian and democratic forms of government founded there? What factors led to Europe's unique position in shaping the world? Thoroughly researched and persuasively argued, Why Europe? tackles these classic questions with illuminating results. Michael Mitterauer traces the roots of Europe's singularity to the medieval era, specifically to developments in agriculture. While most historians have located the beginning of Europe's special path in the rise of state power in the modern era, Mitterauer establishes it.