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Did Economic Grievances Cause Early Modern Popular Rebellions?

By Aleysha Shergill - History Student @ St Hilda's College, Oxford

 

The rejection of Marxist arguments by many historians to explain the causes of the Civil War has arguably led historians to overlook the role of social conflict and material factors in engendering popular rebellion during the early modern period. Recent historiography, however, has argued that redefining what constitutes the ‘political’ enables historians to accommodate a corresponding analysis of the social dimensions to popular protest, as it becomes clear that conflict over resources were themselves inherently political. The role played by economic factors and social conflict is