The Black Plague - A Part Blessing for the Surviving Surfs
In england, the lords made the law and operated their own courts. The black plague kills 40 to 60 percent of the population - disproportionately surfs. For the first time, surfs were in a position to demand better conditions from their own lords. By the 13 eighties, the purchasing power of rural laborers had increased by around forty percent at the expense of the nobility.
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Human beings have free will, but our actions are constrained by material realities. Understanding how material and practical conditions shape human behaviour can make all the difference between success and catastrophic failure when it comes to the whole spectrum of political action, from private sector negotiation, to crafting legislation, to making a revolution.
In this episode we look at:
The relationship between economic activity and the high status of women in traditional Haudenosaunee / Iroquois society
How World War I helped women win the right to vote in Europe and North America
How World War II catalyzed the Black civil rights movement in the United States.
The success, failure, and accidental success of the English Peasant’s Revolt of 1381
The implications of the Anarchist Revolution in Spain in 1936-1939 for the future of industrial civilization.
