In the long ninth century, in both England and on the Continent, Christianity penetrated more deeply than before into social practice, as rulers and churchmen urged greater self-discipline on their people. This essay examines some of the ways in which the symbolism of bodily weakness, and reparability, was used to inscribe new ideas on minds, and new ideas impinged on the ways bodies were treated. Particularly close attention is paid to the evidence of poetry and prayer which both affected and reflected lives lived at court and elsewhere. This takes us to the heart of projects for political and religious correction, and reveals an unexpected amount of human agency.

(READ 26 November 2004)

The ‘Book of Serfs of Marmoutier’ recorded the dealings the monastery had with its serfs in the eleventh century. The eleventh century itself is said to have been a time in which there was a collapse of political authority. Political and judicial institutions are alleged to have been ‘privatised’ as part of the so-called ‘feudal revolution’ that was caused by the collapse of Carolingian authority. This view has often been challenged. The Marmoutier material on serfs is discussed in relation to this debate. Do the monastery–serf relations reflect a privatisation of power? Or if the privatisation of power is an historical myth, how do we explain the highly contested nature of space, community, wealth and authority revealed in the ‘Book of Serfs’? It is argued that authority had indeed fragmented but that this was a response to a conjunction of factors apart from the collapse of the Carolingian state. To the contrary, the Carolingian rulers had encouraged the kind of lord–serf relations that we see in the ‘Book of Serfs’. What is different about our eleventh-century material is that there is more of it, and we are able to see details of social relations at a local level for the first time.

(READ 12 March 2004)

This essay examines the work patterns of housewives and female servants in rural England between the mid-fifteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. Despite the fact that such women expended the majority of female work-hours in the rural economy, their activities remain a neglected topic. Here probate documents, wills, inventories and probate accounts are used alongside other types of sources to provide insight into women's work. The three parts of the essay examine the proportion of female servants employed in different households and localities, the types of work that servants and housewives undertook and the scale and level of commercialisation of four common types of women's work.

(READ 30 April 2004 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF KENT AT CANTERBURY)

The essay examines how the international Protestant identity of the English Church came to be in tension with the later assertion of sacramentalist or Catholic values within it. It chronicles how the Reformation in England came to align not with Lutheranism but with Reformed Protestantism, and compares Henry VIII's reforms with contemporary Reformations in mainland Europe seeking a ‘middle way’. Edward VI's Church is contrasted with the temperature perceptible in Elizabeth I's religious settlement – which nevertheless asserted Protestant values with no concessions to Catholicism. The anomalous role of the cathedrals in England is identified as a major source of the English Church's later deviation from mainstream European Reformed Protestantism, which itself produced attempts to recreate a Reformed Church in the English north American colonies.

(READ 7 July 2004)

This essay examines the frequency of medical interventions paid for on behalf of the dying in provincial southern England through a study of approximately 18,000 probate accounts in three dioceses (Canterbury, Chichester and Salisbury). Very substantial increases in the propensity to obtain medical relief are noted for all status groups in almost all areas. It seems that, depending on status, individuals in the south-eastc.1705 were between four and twelve times more likely to seek a medical strategy when faced with a serious, life-threatening illness or injury than their counterpartsc.1585. This increase in the use of medical strategies in the face of life-threatening ailments was not accompanied by a commensurate increase in the number of practitioners serving the population, but it was accompanied by a rise in the number of practitioners who were described as ‘doctor’ by their clients. It would appear that the medicalisation of the dying in southern England came about through surgeons and physicians more frequently supplying medicines, more regularly acting as general medical practitioners and more often travelling to see their seriously ill patients, regardless of the nature of their qualifications. Finally, the implications for general attitudes to medicine among the seriously ill and dying are discussed, with the conclusion that, by 1700, a form of medical individualism had developed whereby individuals came to see medicines as a natural means of supplementing divine healing power and even a way of facilitating the healing power of God.

(READ 21 May 2004)

This essay outlines a theory of modernisation that is related to changes in the German lands. Modernisation is defined as societal transformation from corporate to functionally specialised institutions. The focus is upon institutions as modes of power (coercive, economic, cultural) and how these modernise through processes of social evolution. Specific types of change are considered for the periods 1800–15 (coercive-political power), 1815–48 (economic power), the revolutions of mid-century (cultural power) and the era of German unification (coercive-military power). A concluding section considers the main patterns of modernisation over the whole period and the kind of modern social order that had been achieved by 1880.

(READ 23 January 2004 AT THE GERMAN HISTORICAL INSTITUTE, LONDON)

This article examines aspects of the environmental history of the Russian steppes in the long term and in a comparative framework by focusing on the work of the prominent Russian scientist Vasilii Dokuchaev in response to the drought and harvest failure that afflicted large parts of the steppes in 1891. Dokuchaev analysed the causes of the disaster in the long-term context of natural and human-induced changes in the environment. He drew up a plan to address the environmental constraints on agriculture in the region, and led a scientific expedition to examine the feasibility of putting parts of his plan into practice.

(READ 22 October 2004 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST OF ENGLAND)

This article explores the campaign waged by Irish women against the draft constitution of 1937. A number of articles within the constitution were deemed by women activists to threaten both their rights as citizens and as workers. A campaign, organised principally by the Women Graduates' Association, the Joint Committee of Women's Societies and Social Workers, together with the Irish Women Workers' Union, sought to amend or delete the offending articles. The campaign ran for two months and in that period, feminists, the press, parliamentarians, the Catholic Church and republicans all engaged in the debate about women's position in Irish society.

(READ 26 March 2004 AT ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON)