Owens_1982-Review_Comuneros_of_Castile

Review Author(s): J. B. Owens Review by: J. B. Owens Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Winter, 1982), pp. 125-126 Published by: Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540023 Accessed: 07-06-2016 16:20 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Sixteenth Century Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Sixteenth Century Journal This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Tue, 07 Jun 2016 16:20:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Tue, 07 Jun 2016 16:20:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 126 The Sixteenth Century Journal While my book on Murcia during the rebellion certainly appeared too late for Haliczer to consult it (1980), all of the above can be found in Joseph P6rez's book or in other major publications on the comuneros. Errors abound in these accounts, but even on the basis of this earlier work, it should have been clear that Murcia did not fit Halic- zer's conception of the comuneros both because of the city's internal history and be- cause of the leadership of the marqu6s de los BMlez, one of Castile's most important aristocrats. Of course, giving Murcia its due in a history of the movement makes the story much more complex, but surely it should not have been ignored completely just because it did not fit some historian's preconceived idea of the revolt's meaning. Haliczer's discussion of opposition political and social theory before and during the rebellion contains similar flaws. He introduces an anachronistic terminology and ig- nores completely important work like that of J. I. Guti6rrez Nieto (1977) on the contemporary political meanings of the word comunidad. Without such questionable methods it was apparently too hard for Haliczer to demonstrate a revolutionary ideology for leaders who claimed to petition the crown for a redress of grievances, who restricted representation to the eighteen cities of the original Cortes and who, despite firm opposi- tion to certain magnates, preserved the social forms of the old regime in their treatment of caballeros and aristocrats within their own camp. Because he has ignored or distorted significant evidence, Haliczer's central hypothesis, that the comunero movement was a revolution, remains unproved. His sup- posed reliance ". . . on the theoretical work of the functionalist school of sociology. . ." (p. 9) does nothing to further his argument since his brief introductory and concluding comments suggest that his grasp of social theory is not very strong. At his best, Haliczer has shown he can write good history; he went astray in following a chimera of theory rather than the evidence. J. B. Owens Idaho State University Chaste, Silent and Obedient: English Books for Women, 1475-1640. Suzanne W. Hull. Huntinton Library, San Marino, California, 1982, 247 pp. $15.00. In this book Suzanne Hull examines books published for English women between 1475 and 1640. Such books include prayer books, practical guides and popular romances. Using five tightly defined criteria for identifying "books for women," Hull has uncovered at least 160 titles in 500 editions. Books that she includes in her list are books specifically directed to women; books on subjects within a woman's province, such as herbals and books on midwifery; books with separate sections on women's duties and roles; histories or biographies of famous women; and books with multiple dedications to women. Hull's study is not limited to a collection of titles printed exclusively for women. As she points out, such a list would be very limited. Instead, the list includes books that authors or booksellers expected women to buy, read, or have read to them. Books meeting Hull's criteria are listed in an annotated Basic List in the appendices. Books which, on the other hand, have female associations but which do not meet Hull's stated criteria are listed in a Supplemental List. Hull is very clear about her criteria for placing a book on one list or another but some readers may take issue with her on this set of standards for good reasons. The author found that there are four basic categories of books published for women: books of advice, practical guides and herbals; fiction, poetry, jingles, etc; books This content downloaded from 132.178.94.23 on Tue, 07 Jun 2016 16:20:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms