Status Interaction During the Reign of Louis XIV (The Past & Present Book Series) - Hardcover

Sternberg, Giora

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199640343 ISBN 13: 9780199640348

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2014

Synopsis

Who preceded whom? Who wore what? Which form of address should one use? One of the most striking aspects of the early modern period is the crucial significance that contemporaries ascribed to such questions. In this hierarchical world, status symbols did not simply mirror a pre-defined social and political order; rather, they operated as a key tool for defining and redefining identities, relations, and power. Centuries later, scholars face the twofold challenge of evaluating status interaction in an era where its open pursuit is no longer as widespread and legitimate, and of deciphering its highly sophisticated and often implicit codes.

About this title

Review:

Giora Sternberg has made an exceedingly impressive debut ... It will be an indispensable work on the political culture for anyone researching the governmental or elite social history of France for years to come, and also ... for those who will look at other states in the old regime period (Guy Rowlands, History)

The expression "status interaction" so cogently summarizes a crucial element of social and cultural reality that it will undoubtedly enter into the historiography, marking the success of this well-documented and richly suggestive study. (Matthew Vester, H-France Review)

scholarship of the very highest order ... This is one of these very rare books which might have been two or three times as long. It will require constant re-reading, so numerous and complex are its insights and so profound its importance (Hamish Scott, European History Quarterly)

successful in deciphering the language of the court, and most importantly, by testing its effect on the ground, and charting the consequences of such exchanges ... What emerges is an enriched view of court dynamics, as we are guided through the ever-shifting and malleable social world of the early modern courtier. Sternberg has also presented an impressive reading of sources and a dissection of a number of key aspects of status symbolism (Linda Kiernan, Reviews in History)

This is, without doubt, an important piece of scholarship ... [Sternberg] has a facility with language and phrasing which is not only clear and lucid but often enlivens the narrative ... a commendable achievement, which offers a new perspective on an old topic. (P. McCluskey, English Historical Review)

What Sternberg supplies are so many of the glorious details to understanding the fine mechanics of Louis XIV's Versailles and the court society. (Journal of Modern History)

About the Author:

Giora Sternberg is Fellow and Tutor in History and University Lecturer, Hertford College, University of Oxford. He was a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and holds a DPhil in History from the University of Oxford. He began his academic studies at the Adi Lautman Interdisciplinary Program for Outstanding Students in Tel Aviv University, where he completed a BSc in Computer Science and Humanities and an MA in History.

About this edition

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199640343
• ISBN 13: 9780199640348
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224