History

Introduction: Natural philosophy and instrumentality -- "What was worth knowing" in 1500 -- Humanism and ancient wisdom: how to learn things in the sixteenth century -- The alchemist, the craftsman, and the scholar -- Mathematics challenges philosophy: Galileo, Kepler, and the mathematical practitioners -- Mechanism and corpuscles : Descartes builds a universe -- Extra-curricular activities: new homes for natural knowledge -- Experiment: how to learn things about nature in the seventeenth century -- Cartesians and Newtonians -- Conclusion: what was worth knowing by the eighteenth century?

A Window to the World of Literacy: A Social History of Elementary Schools -- The Slow Advance of Literacy in Peasant Culture -- Literacy Among the Nobility -- The Lower Nobility and the Oral Tradition -- An Outlook in Time: Nationalities and the Spread of Literacy After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise.

SummaryUntil now the advent of Western romantic love has been seen as a liberation from--or antidote to--ten centuries of misogyny. In this major contribution to gender studies, R. Howard Bloch demonstrates how similar the ubiquitous antifeminism of medieval times and the romantic idealization of woman actually are. Through analyses of a broad range of patristic and medieval texts, Bloch explores the Christian construction of gender in which the flesh is feminized, the feminine is aestheticized, and aesthetics are condemned in theological terms. Tracing the underlying theme of virginity from the Church.

SummaryThis book is a comparative framework for interpreting the relationship between late Stalinism and the communist takeovers in former Eastern Europe. A bonus for the volume is that it also provides detailed, sectorial analyses for the Romanian case, something that the field particularly lacks. The structure of the volume provides grounds for both reinterpretation and an input of fresh insights and research on the nature, dynamics, and consequences of Stalinism in Eastern and Central Europe. It contains three types of contributions: (a) general analyses of phenomena associated with the category of Stalinism; (b) case studies focusing upon aspects of establishment of communist regimes in each of the Eastern European countries; (c) historiographical evaluations of the literature dealing with the targeted period of time.

SummaryThis wide-ranging and perceptive book focuses on the collective values and activities of lay society over several centuries, from trade guilds and manor courts to the development of parliaments and the rule of feudal monarchs. It offers a new approach to the history of medieval Europe.