| Citizens without Nations Contributor(s): Prak, Maarten (Author) |
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ISBN: 1107504155 ISBN-13: 9781107504158 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $33.24 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | World - General - Political Science | Civil Rights |
| Dewey: 323.609 |
| LCCN: 2018003684 |
| Physical Information: 0.81" H x 6.41" W x 8.95" (1.59 lbs) 442 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Citizenship is at the heart of our contemporary world but it is a particular vision of national citizenship forged in the French Revolution. In Citizens without Nations, Maarten Prak recovers the much longer tradition of urban citizenship across the medieval and early modern world. Ranging from Europe and the American colonies to China and the Middle East, he reveals how the role of 'ordinary people' in urban politics has been systematically underestimated and how civic institutions such as neighbourhood associations, craft guilds, confraternities and civic militias helped shape local and state politics. By destroying this local form of citizenship, the French Revolution initially made Europe less, rather than more democratic. Understanding citizenship's longer-term history allows us to change the way we conceive of its future, rethink what it is that makes some societies more successful than others, and whether there are fundamental differences between European and non-European societies. |
Contributor Bio(s): Prak, Maarten: - Maarten Prak is Professor of Social and Economic History at the Department of History and Art History, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands. He is on the Board of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. |