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Overview

Professor Christian Liddy

Professor (Late Medieval History)


Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor (Late Medieval History) in the Department of History+44 (0) 191 33 41079
Member of the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 

Biography

Trained primarily as an urban historian, under the supervision first of Caroline Barron (London) and then of Sarah Rees Jones and Mark Ormrod (York), I write about towns in the late Middle Ages (13th-16th centuries). Most of my published research focuses on English medieval towns, but I study them comparatively. In particular, I write urban history that seeks to overcome the distorting effects of national historiographical traditions, which emerged in the 19th century, but which persist today. In decentring the nation-state, I study towns in their own right. What does this mean? I am interested in the concept of 'town-ness' and in the distinctiveness of the urban place. In his classic study of the contemporary American city, The Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life, the sociologist Richard Sennett wrote animatedly of the ‘essence of urban life', which he found in 'its diversity and possibilities for complex existence’. Sennett thought that these qualities had been lost in the modern city, but what draws me to urban history is the sense of the town as a site of intellectual and physical labour, of manufacture, a process as much as a place, a permanent work in progress that is always in flux, unstable yet dynamic. Where did (and does) authority lie in such a space? Complexity, fluidity, and instability were basic, functioning conditions of urban living in the Middle Ages.

I wrote my first book on relations between major provincial cities and the English crown during the Hundred Years War. After this initial study of English towns, I had the opportunity to research the history of the palatinate of Durham (or the bishopric of Durham, as it was known in the Middle Ages). In the English historiography, Durham had been seen as an anomaly or problem, an exception to the general rule of England's precocious centralization as a single, coherent, well-defined, and stable nation-state. I explored how members of rural society interacted with each other and with the institutions of palatine government. In identifying the existence of a vigorous, local political culture, which was very different from what I had been taught to expect, I became more convinced that it was possible, and desirable, to move away from master narratives of national history towards a comparative and connected history of towns. 

After my research on Durham, I returned to urban history. Between 2007 and 2012 I was an associate editor of the journal Urban History, for which I wrote an annual review (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012). Funded by a British Academy Small Research Grant (2009-11) and by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship (2014-15), my last book, The Politics of Citizenship in English Towns, examined the multiple and sometimes conflicting meanings of citizenship in late medieval English towns. 

My interest in the relationship between ideas of citizenship and practices of resistance led to my role as the academic curator of the Magna Carta and the Changing Face of Revolt exhibition, which was held in the summer of 2015 at Palace Green Library. To accompany the exhibition, I also organized a public lecture series on the theme of citizenship. The lectures remain available on the Durham University YouTube channel, Magna Carta play list. Speakers included Professor Guy Standing, author of The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class and A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens.

My current research project is a comparative study of urban families in different parts of late medieval Europe (including England). It develops my engagement with a social history of politics that approaches politics from the ground up and from social practice. I place the history of family and lineage at the centre of the study of northern European cities. Specifically, I wish to test the oft-repeated argument that families in late medieval English towns were short-lived, in marked contrast to the situation in continental Europe where urban families and their lineages persisted. This was a pattern that would influence the future shape and direction of European history: the roots of capitalism and economic modernization; the trajectories and types of state formation; and the dynamics of social mobility.

Between March and April 2024, I was 'Professeur invité' at the Sorbonne, where I delivered a series of lectures on 'Urban Life in the Middle Ages'. I will be Visiting Professor at the University of Turin between March and April 2025. I am keen to accept PhD applications from students interested in any aspect of medieval urban history.

 

Research interests

  • Family and lineage
  • Home and household
  • Citizenship
  • Popular revolt and popular protest
  • Pre-modern towns
  • Comparative urban history

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

Edited book

Journal Article