Table of Contents

CONTENTS: Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction: Social Structure as Social Closure
PART 1: CLASS STRUCTURE AS SOCIAL CLOSURE
Agrarian Class Structure: Exclusion and Dual Closure
Agrarian Class Structure and the Forces for Change (I)
Trade, Population and the Money-supply (ii)
Usurpationary Closure
Urban Class Structure and Usurpationary Closure
PART 2: ORDER, GENDER AND STATUS-GROUP AS SOCIAL CLOSURE
Order as Social Closure (I)- The Nobility
Order as Social Closure(ii)- The Clergy
Gender as Social Closure: Women
Status-group as Social Closure: the Jews
Social Ideology: Closure Legitimated?
Conclusion
Select bibliography
Bibliography of references.

Promotional Information

'[Rigby] has produced a book which manages to be both stimulating and useful.' - Rosemary Horrox, History Today 'Overall, this book is a very important contribution for both its theoretical interpretations and its empirical description of English medieval society. It will be much valued and is to be highly recommended.' - David Postles, Continuity and Change '[Students] will learn from Rigby's illuminating discussions of medieval, as well as modern, social theory, and his richly nuanced analysis of terms such as 'estate', 'order' and 'class', some valuable lessons about the sensitivity with which the historian must use language and the political nature of so much of our inherited historical discourse.' - W.M. Ormrod, The Historian

Reviews

'[Rigby] has produced a book which manages to be both stimulating and useful.' - Rosemary Horrox, History Today 'Overall, this book is a very important contribution for both its theoretical interpretations and its empirical description of English medieval society. It will be much valued and is to be highly recommended.' - David Postles, Continuity and Change '[Students] will learn from Rigby's illuminating discussions of medieval, as well as modern, social theory, and his richly nuanced analysis of terms such as 'estate', 'order' and 'class', some valuable lessons about the sensitivity with which the historian must use language and the political nature of so much of our inherited historical discourse.' - W.M. Ormrod, The Historian