Class Conflict and the Crisis of Feudalism: Essays in Medieval Social History

by R.H. Hilton

Some of the liveliest and most fruitful debates in recent historical writing have been about the transition from feudalism to capitalism. Rodney Hilton’s vast and distinguished body of work on medieval society has been a major reference point in these debates. Throughout his work the dominant theme has been his argument that the “prime mover” in the development of medieval society was the conflict between landlords and peasants over the appropriation of the peasants’ surplus product. This is the class conflict which gives the present volume its title.

This wide-ranging collection, updated to include some of Hilton’s most recent writings, explores not only the peasant economy and peasant movements but also the nature of towns and their principal classes. Essays include a fascinating study of women traders in medieval England, and an account of medieval tax revolts—all informed by his lucid, undogmatic attention to broad theoretical issues as well as to empirical detail. This is a book not only for historians, but for anyone interested in the evolution of capitalism or the larger questions of historical process and social change.

Genres: History, Medieval, Nonfiction, Medieval History

255 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1985

About the author

Rodney Howard Hilton FBA (17 November 1916 – 7 June 2002) was an English Marxist historian. Hilton had a long teaching career at the University of Birmingham where he specialised in late medieval English History and the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

Reviews

[Derek]

A nice anthology of mostly NLR review articles by Hilton. My only complaint is that he rarely comments on the feudal conditions outside of Britain.

[Matthew]

Hilton's collection of essays on class conflict in feudalism asserts the importance of detailed inquiry into this period, and the rejection of the (somewhat common) idea that class / serfdom / etc. were simple categories to locate within feudal society. For those of us who are less knowledgeable on historiography around this period, and its lingo, this text can be slightly dense at points, but nonetheless does well to explain different arguments within the field of medieval history, and begin to outline the role of class conflict within medieval societies, in opposition to those historians who would argue that this was a 'stable' period.

Regarding the individual essays, I particularly enjoyed those of chapter 7 and 13, on 'Popular Movements in England at the End of the Fourteenth Century' and 'Social Concepts in the English Rising of 1381' respectively.