Europe - Economic History, Wages & Income - Economics

Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe

Name: Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe
Author: Steven A. Epstein
ISBN: 9780807844984

by Steven A. Epstein

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Overview

Epstein takes a fresh look at the organization of labor in medieval towns and emphasizes the predominance of a wage system within them. He offers illuminating comment on a wide range of subjects—on guilds and guild organization, on women and Jews in the work force, on the value given labor, and on the sources of disaffection. His book presents a feast of themes in medieval social history.

David Herlihy, Brown University

About the Author, Steven A. Epstein

Steven A. Epstein, professor of history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, is author of Wills and Wealth in Medieval Genoa, 1150-1250.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

As a much-needed synthesis, [the book] will serve students well.

Speculum

A thoughtful and wide-ranging contribution to the social and economic history of the High Medieval urban milieu.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Interesting and comprehensive. . . . A major accomplishment.

Journal of Economic History

A feast of themes in medieval social history.

David Herlihy, Brown University

Booknews

This in-depth analysis of the Minnesota experience--where pay equity has proceeded farther than any other place in the nation--focuses on what actually happened in implementing the most important and controversial wage policy since minimum wage and on the political, organizational, and personal consequences of using technocratic methods to change wage policy. Wage labor existed as far back as pre-Roman times, but its roots as a dominant economic system are shown in this study to be found in the urban economies of medieval Europe--a challenge to the conventional view that a feudal or domestic mode of production predominated. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)