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SUMMARY:The Great European Famine of 1315-7 revisited: nature\, institutio
 ns and demography - Dr Phil Slavin\, University of Kent
DTSTART:20171012T160000Z
DTEND:20171012T173000Z
UID:TALK74741@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Duncan Needham
DESCRIPTION:This paper\, largely based on my forthcoming book 'Communities
  of Famine' looks at what could have been the single harshest subsistence 
 crisis in European history: the Great European Famine of 1315-7.  The disc
 ussion is linked to a larger scholarly controversy regarding the causes an
 d nature of famine as historical phenomena.  Some scholars consider famine
 s as exogenous disasters\, caused by natural forces\; another school of th
 ought sees famine as an anthropogenic catastrophe\, brought about by purel
 y institutional factors\; finally\, some historians blame the so-called 'M
 althusian trap'  in creating famines.  The present paper uses the remarkab
 ly rich documentation related to the Great Famine in England\, to test all
  three models of famine and determine which one fits the crisis the best. 
  As expected\, there is no uniform answer and it was a combination of all 
 three factors (referred to as 'meta-structures')\, with their complex mech
 anisms and derivatives\, that created the Great Famine.
LOCATION:Old Library\, Darwin College
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