The Fifteenth Century (Book Review)

     Margaret Aston The Fifteenth Century (1968) A survey of the century that not only moved European civilisation from the Middle Ages to the Renascence but invented the concepts. A well illustrated overview, with enough casual detail to bring the period to life, the book reminds us that much of what we consider the modern way of living was invented 500 years ago. Technology has changed, but our attitudes towards the past, the present, and the new were first expressed back then. By the 1700s, these attitudes were already deeply ingrained enough to attract criticism from satirists such as Jonathan Swift, who mocked uncritical acclaim and enthusiasm for whatever was new and different in his A Tale of a Tub and Gulliver’s Travels. On the other hand, the realisation that human reason and imagination were capable of not merely changing but actually improving human life dates from the early Renascence and led directly to the accelerating development of technology and scientific discovery that we now take for granted.
     More importantly, the notion that social arrangements and politics were not inevitable but could be altered to suit ourselves dates from this time, too. Machiavelli was vilified for his proposition that the Prince’s responsibility for the safety of the state overrode the laws of individual morality. But his actual legacy was the very idea of that responsibility. Prior to his book, the state was seen as the property of the Prince, for which he was responsible only to God. His book implies throughout that the Prince is responsible to the people to keep them safe, promote prosperity, and prevent conquest by enemies. By 1776, the Americans spoke about a King’s failures in his duties to his subjects as not merely a reason for rebellion, but as a mandate. People and rulers have a reciprocal responsibility to keep each other honest.
     These and other reflections may occur to the reader of this very handy book, which, as many such have done recently, both reminded me of what I had learned in school, and also corrected misperceptions and clarified vaguenesses. **½