Crowds as Scarce Resource: Collective Behavior in Early Medieval Europe -- Prof. Shane Bobrycki (University of Iowa)

Historians have studied crowds and collective behavior in many settings. Early Medieval Europe (c. 500-1000) presents a unique chapter in crowd history, when logistical constraints on gatherings were comparatively high, thanks to post-Roman demographic and urban decline. Nevertheless, imperatives to assemble remained strong, in societies that used gatherings to exchange information and things, saw numbers as proof of legitimacy, and envisioned themselves as heirs to crowd-filled ancient Rome. It is a setting in which crowds look and act very differently from other periods studied by crowd history (among other things, there was no fixed word for "riot"). How can the history of the crowd as a scarce resource inform medievalists, both of Europe and of other regions? What might it offer to scholars of crowds in other settings?  

Please join us for this talk by Professor Shane Bobrycki (University of Iowa), author of The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages (2024).