Artisans Rule

Craft production and its significance for understanding social relations are one of the essential topics in prehistoric archaeology. Standardization of raw materials, products, and manufacturing procedures, and the presence or absence of specialized artisans still challenge scholars engaged in the studies of technology, social archaeology, exchange and distribution networks and economy in the past. In this volume, seven case studies covering a chronological span from the Neolithic to La Tène Europe explore the notions of standardization and specialization, the nature of their interrelationship, the methods for assessing their presence in the archaeological record, and their significance for the reconstruction of social relations and emergence of social complexity, while two ethnoarchaeological studies focus on the organization of production and methods of estimation of a number of artisans. This volume brings together research from prominent scholars, based on different theoretical perspectives, thus giving new insight into the fundamental issues related to artisans and their crafts.

This title was first published in 2001. A comparative sociological examination of artisans, exploring historical examples and theoretical references to the stratum. The book also investigates empirical case studies and analyzes the variegated careers of contemporary artisans.

The first book-length study to articulate the vital presence of artisans and craft labor in medieval English literature from c.1000-1483.

Vividly reconstructs economic conditions in ancient Roman cities and the socio-economic strategies of artisans who lived in them.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1968.

First published in 1979, this book was the first, full-length study of working-class movements in London between 1800 and the beginnings of Chartism in the later 1830s. The leaders and rank and file in these movements were almost invariably artisans, and this book examines the position of the skilled artisan in politics. Starting from the social ideals, outlook and the experience of the London artisan, Dr Prothero describes trade union, political, co-operative, educational and intellectual movements in the first forty years of the century. Setting a scene of alternating growth and contraction in trade, successive hostile governments and the increasing articulation of working-class consciousness the author shows that artisans could be no less militant, radical or anti-capitalist than other groups of working class men.

This book is a survey of the history of work in general and of European urban artisans in particular, from the late middle ages to the era of industrialization. Unlike traditional histories of work and craftsmen, this book offers a multi-faceted understanding of artisan experience situated in the artisans' culture. It treats economic and institutional topics, but also devotes considerable attention to the changing ideologies of work, the role of government regulation in the world of work, the social history of craftspeople, the artisan in rebellion against the various authorities in his world, and the ceremonial and leisure life of artisans. Women, masters, journeymen, apprentices, and non-guild workers all receive substantial treatment. The book concludes with a chapter on the nineteenth century, examining the transformation of artisan culture, exploring how and why the early modern craftsman became the industrial wage-worker, mechanic or shopkeeper of the modern age.

The manufacture and trade in crafted goods and the men and women who were involved in this industry - including metalworkers, ceramicists, silk weavers, fez-makers, blacksmiths and even barbers - lay at the social as well as the economic heart of the Ottoman empire. This comprehensive history, by leading Ottoman historian Suraiya Faroqhi, presents the definitive view of the subject, from the production and distribution of different craft objects to their use and enjoyment within the community. Faroqhi sheds new light on all aspects of artisan life, setting the concerns of individual craftsmen within the context of the broader cultural themes that connect them to the wider world. Combining social, cultural, economic, religious and historical insights, this will be the authoritative work on Ottoman artisans and guilds for many years to come. 'A display of unrivalled knowledge of the sources by one of the leading historians of the Ottoman Empire.' - Erik J. Zürcher, Professor of Turkish Studies at the University of Leiden