Welcome to the Saturday edition of The Conversation U.S.’s Daily newsletter.
“The Uprising,” which hit theaters yesterday, retells a chapter of English history that may be unfamiliar to American audiences: In 1381, anger over a 12-pence poll tax helped ignite what became known as the English Peasants’ Revolt.
As University of Rhode Island medievalist JoΓ«lle Rollo-Koster explains, medieval peasants were far from the obsequious subjects they’re often assumed to have been, and their defiance went beyond the English Peasants’ Revolt. From 1350 to 1450, there were dozens of popular uprisings across Europe, in places ranging from the farmlands of northern France to the textile powerhouse of Florence, Italy, to the Flemish manufacturing hubs in modern-day Belgium.
The proximate causes were a pandemic, unending war, soaring inequality and a corrupt, venal ruling class. If that sounds familiar, you may be wondering where all the pitchforks have gone today.
The atomization and algorithmization of life in the digital age could, in part, be to blame. Rollo-Koster points to how Medieval society – with its guilds and religious mutual aid societies – provided the social networks “to organize around shared interests and grievances.” Insurrections erupted because in cities across Europe, “regular people had cultivated a strong tradition of collective action,” she writes.
This week we also liked stories about tiny ‘backpacks’ that track migrating birds, the rise of women’s professional baseball in the U.S., and tips for preventing weeds without spreading chemicals in your garden.
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