Comments on: Ormrod Review: Immigrant England

By: Callan Hass

Callan Hass — Sat, 12 Feb 2022 03:32:37 +0000

Matthew, this is an excellent review! Your discussion of sources is spot on. I do agree with Anna here in my wish that there were qualitative sources rather than just quantitative. To be frank, I find numbers very dry and often intimidating. I much prefer journals, government documents, and other personal records. These would be wonderful to include in this work but I’m skeptical that there are many records in this form from this era. Most people at this time were not literate and did not have the means to record their experiences. Ormrod does an amazing job of bringing numbers and data to life in this work to give a more familiar, as well as more captivating, discourse.

By: Anna Ciambotti

Anna Ciambotti — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 03:33:18 +0000

Hello Matthew!

This book review did a good job of thematically organizing the authors purposes in writing the book. I agree with the critique that the last few chapters “seemed to feel like a different book”. I wonder if the author had a purpose for saving the topics of xenophobia an racism towards the end. This book review made me think about how the data used to illuminate the immigrant experience was mostly quantitative. I would have loved to see some more qualitative data such as diaries, journal entries, etc (if such things even exist). I feel that it would have helped readers to understand the immigrant experience even further.

By: Edward Kirsch

Edward Kirsch — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 21:57:23 +0000

I concur with Mathew’s and Emily’s implicit assessments that Immigrant England is a foundational text for historians studying English economic and social history during the period 1300 to 1550. As they note, the work makes excellent use of a rare, relatively robust, untapped database of contemporaneous records that includes alien subsidy (poll tax) records and letters of denization, supplemented by contemporaneous statutes, and other materials. As Emily notes, the underlying database is publicly available and the authors invite the community to build on their research, which Berry does. Accordingly, it is useful that the authors were are clear as to methodologies used to assess the data, for example associating high status with the ability of immigrants to pay for denizenship (26, 138), and the limitations of the data sets, for example where they deduce the numbers of immigrants in England. (Chapter 3) As Emily notes, the authors succinctly sketched background information on the “golden age of the English laborer,” Black Death, terminology (Chapter 1), guilds, English common law and other items to make their analysis of social and economic conditions meaningful to the general reader. However, the work is clearly intended for a scholarly audience, and presumes some prior knowledge of regimes and events such as the Hundred Years War, Henry’s VIII’s excursion in Boulogne, Phillip the Good etc. (140) A strong argument, noted by Mathew, is violence against aliens was relatively rare and motivated by economic pressures rather than xenophobia. (chapter 10) The authors convincingly argue the “alien problem” in the latter fifteenth century was “invented and managed by Londoners,” especially the Guilds and often met by the central government’s “gesture politics”. (31-36). Chapter 6 is insightful with a focus on the high skills, new products, and technologies immigrants brought into fashion and other industries, and the “pull factors” drawing them to England. Berry’s article builds on this work and examines the acceptance of alien Goldsmiths.

By: Tyler Thompson

Tyler Thompson — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 18:42:17 +0000

Matthew,
I love your review of Immigrant England, 1300-1550. You draw out the major arguments of the book and provide both the positives and the negatives that the book has. Your section on what brought the immigrants to England was very enlightening. The decrease in the population due to the Black Plague provided a base for economic potential. Fewer workers were available and the workers that were still alive saw their wages increase dramatically. The economic opportunities for immigrants helped to draw them towards England during this period. The tensions that did rise from the influx of immigrants were based on economic concerns rather than an underlying mistrust of immigrants. The book did read as based on a more academic audience. One thing that surprised me was the wide number of places that immigrants came from. I did not know that people from all across Europe came to England during this time period. I also agree with your critiques of the book that the last couple of chapters could be made into their own book. Overall, your review was excellent and would give anyone a great idea of whether they want to read the book or not.

By: Dr. Otis

Dr. Otis — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 18:24:43 +0000

SAMPLE COMMENT: I agree there’s an argument to be made here about this being part of a larger narrative about defining Englishness. In that case, though, what do we think is the significance of this narrative moment including the gradual loss of the English king’s French holdings? Do we think the existence of the English monarch’s non-English land holdings play a role in defining Englishness and if so what?