Description
Book SynopsisIt is usually claimed that serfs were oppressed and unfree, but is this assumption true? Freedom''s Price, building on a new reading of archival material, attempts a fundamental re-appraisal of the continuing orthodoxy that a ''serf'' economy embodied peasant exploitation. It reveals that, in fact, Prussian ''subject'' peasants fared much better than their ''free'' neighbours; they had mutual rights and obligations with nobles and the state.In this volume, Sean Eddie seeks to establish the true ''price of freedom'' paid by the peasants both in the so-called Second Serfdom around 1650 and in the enfranchisement of 1807-21. Far from representing further exploitation, the peasants drove a hard bargain, and many nobles subsequently fared worse than their tenants; subjection was abolished and land ownership was transferred from noble to peasant. Capital was therefore at the centre of the pre-capitalist economy, and the growing economic polarization of society owed more to the peasants'' acc
Trade ReviewRelations between the peasantry, the Junkers and the state are central to understanding Prussian and German history between the middle of the eighteenth and the middle of the nineteenth century. By looking again at old evidence and finding much that is new, Sean Eddie has succeeded in mounting a powerfully revisionist challenge to the accepted picture. His lucid and cogently argued book will prove to be a landmark in the historiography of the period. * Professor Tim Blanning, University of Cambridge *
Compellingly argued and skilfully written, Eddie fundamentally challenges existing orthodoxies to produce a provocative, wide-ranging and important work. * Royal Historical Society Gladstone Prize Committee 2013 *
Eddie's extraordinarily important reevaluation of the political economy of rural Brandenburg-Prussia slays a number of historiographic dragons and knocks down a number of historical shibboleths about peasants, about nobles, about Prussia, and about the role of subjection in rural societies ... [he is] a scholar who understands the rich complexity and contingency of Prussian rural history. A short review can scarcely do his book justice. Rich with insight and studded with marvelous aperçus ... it is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Prussia or the transformation of European rural societies more generally. * David E. Barclay, American Historical Review *
this is one of those rare books that utilizes superb archival research and sound reasoning truly to transform conventional thinking on a subject ... S.A. Eddie provocatively challenges our understanding of serfdom in Prussia between 1648 and 1848 by asserting that the relationship between noble and serf was mutually beneficial ... the tremendous research and logical arguments will make Freedom's Price a force to be reckoned with for decades to come. * Michael V. Leggiere, The Historian *
Table of ContentsPART ONE: THE MANORIAL ECONOMY; PART TWO: REFORM; PART THREE: CONCLUSION
