قراءات إضافية

معظم التاريخ الأوروبي الذي كُتب قبل القرن العشرين هو تاريخ الأرستقراطيين. تَمحور ذلك التاريخ حول السلطة وممارستها، وكان هذا الأمر حكرًا دومًا على الطبقة الأرستقراطية. فقط عندما تعرضت السلطة الأرستقراطية لتراجُع تام اعتُبر تاريخ أو أنشطة الجماعات الأخرى على القدر نفسه من الأهمية، وعندها — على نحوٍ غريب — بدا أن التاريخ الاجتماعي الجديد يشتمل على دراسة كل شيء عدا النخب التقليدية. وهكذا بدأت الأبحاث التي تناولت طبقة النبلاء في وقتٍ متأخرٍ نسبيٍّا. لكن منذ منتصف القرن الماضي، تناول كمٌّ هائل من دراسات الحالة كل جانب من سلوك النبلاء في عددٍ كبيرٍ من السياقات التاريخية والجغرافية، مستبعدةً العديد من الأساطير التي تخدم مصالحها الذاتية التي قامت عليها الانطباعات والافتراضات المبكرة بشأن هذا السلوك. ولا يمكن لأية قائمةِ كتبٍ مختصرة أن تشير إلى أكثر من مجرد مختارات صغيرة وعشوائية من هذه الأبحاث. كل المراجع المذكورة هنا باللغة الإنجليزية، على الرغم من نشر المواد المهمة بالعديد من اللغات الأخرى. وسيجد مَن يستطيعون قراءة هذه اللغات بطبيعة الحال الأشياء الأكثر أهمية في الفهارس والحواشي السفلية في الدراسات المتخصصة.

(١) عام

T. B. Bottomore, Elites and Society (1964). Lucid introduction to the study of elites in general, putting aristocracies into context.
Michael Bush, Noble Privilege (1983) and Rich Noble, Poor Noble (1988). First two volumes of an unfinished trilogy, The European Nobility, a quite indispensable compendium of comparative information.
Jack Goody, Joan Thirsk, and E. P. Thompson (eds.), Family and Inheritance: Rural Society in Western Europe, 1200–1800 (1976). Contains essays of first-rate importance.
Frederic Cople Jaher (ed.), The Rich, the Well Born and the Powerful (1973). Wide chronological range of informative essays.
Robert Lacey, Aristocrats (1983). Book of a popular television series on rich surviving families.
Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power (2 vols, 1986–93). Worldwide comparisons.
Barrington Moore, Jr, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World (1966). More worldwide comparisons.
Jonathan Powis, Aristocracy (1984). Brief, elegant, and thoughtful pioneering synthesis.

(٢) قديم

M. T. W. Arnheim, Aristocracy in Greek Society (1977).
P. A. Brunt, The Fall of the Roman Republic (1988). Modern treatment of episodes that have haunted all aristocratic history.
M. Gelzer, The Roman Nobility (English tr., 1969). Classic analysis.
R. E. Mitchell, Patricians and Plebeians (1991).
C. G. Starr, The Aristocratic Temper of Greek Civilisation (1992).
Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution (1939). A classic, now somewhat superseded by Brunt (above).

(٣) القرون الوسطى

Perry Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism (1974). Bravura Marxism.
Marc Bloch, Feudal Society, 2 vols (English tr., 1961). Classic survey, now superseded in many respects.
Georges Duby, The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined (English tr., 1980).
Maurice Keen, Chivalry (1984).
Timothy Reuter (ed.), The Medieval Nobility (1978). Wide-ranging translated essays.
M. G. A. Vale, War and Chivalry: Warfare and Aristocratic Culture in England, France and Burgundy at the End of the Middle Ages (1981).
Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe 400–1000 (2009). Up-to-date survey, strong on the murky origins of noble power.

(٤) ذروة

Perry Anderson, Lineages of the Absolutist State (1974). Another dazzling Marxist synthesis.
Ronald G. Asch, Nobilities in Transition, 1550–1700: Courtiers and Rebels in Britain and Europe (1993).
Samuel Clark, State and Status: The Rise of the State and Aristocratic Power in Western Europe (1995).
Jonathan Dewald, The European Nobility, 1400–1800 (1996).
A. Goodwin (ed.), The European Nobility in the Eighteenth Century (1953). Pioneering collection in its day. Not all the contributions yet superseded.
Jerzy Lukowski, The European Nobility in the Eighteenth Century (2003). Excellent and up-to-date survey.
H. M. Scott (ed.), The European Nobilities in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, 2nd edn. (2007). Unrivalled compendium of authoritative essays, well balanced between Eastern and Western Europe.
Hillay Zmora, Monarchy, Aristocracy and the State in Europe, 1300–1800 (2001).

(٥) خسوف

Jerome Blum, The End of the Old Order in Rural Europe (1978). Wide-ranging, if conceptually debatable.
William Doyle, Aristocracy and its Enemies in the Age of Revolution (2009). Chronicles early attacks on nobilities.
Dominic Lieven, The Aristocracy in Europe, 1815–1914 (1992). Invaluable comparative survey.
Arno J. Mayer, The Persistence of the Old Regime: Europe to the Great War (1981). Challenging and controversial.
D. Spring (ed.), European Landed Elites in the Nineteenth Century (1997).
Karina Urbach, European Aristocracies and the Radical Right, 1918–1939 (2007).
Ellis Wasson, Aristocracy and the Modern World (2006). Extremely useful overview.

(٦) الدول

(٦-١) بريطانيا العظمى

J. V. Beckett, The Aristocracy in England, 1660–1914 (1986). Judicious and well informed.
M. L. Bush, The English Aristocracy: A Comparative Synthesis (1984). Argues convincingly against English exceptionalism.
David Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy (1990). Huge and magnificent chronicle of aristocratic downfall.
John Cannon, Aristocratic Century: The Peerage of Eighteenth Century England (1984).
John Habbakuk, Marriage, Debt and the Estates System: English Landownership 1650–1950 (1994). Definitive analysis of property management.
K. B. Macfarlane, The Nobility of Later Medieval England (1973). Demythologizes the Wars of the Roses.
G. E. Mingay, The Gentry: The Rise and Fall of a Ruling Class (1976).
Lawrence Stone, The Crisis of the Aristocracy, 1558–1641 (1965; abridged edn., 1967). Monumental if controversial backdrop to the Civil War.
Lawrence Stone and Jeanne C. Fawtier Stone, An Open Elite? England 1540–1880 (1984).

(٦-٢) أيرلندا

Toby Barnard, A New Anatomy of Ireland: The Irish Protestants, 1649–1770 (2003).
J. C. Beckett, The Anglo-Irish Tradition (1976).
A. P. W. Malcomson, The Pursuit of the Heiress: Aristocratic Marriage in Ireland, 1740–1840, 2nd edn. (2006).

(٦-٣) فرنسا

William H. Beik, Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth Century France: State Power and Provincial Aristocracy in Languedoc (1985). Challenges traditional interpretations of Louis XIV’s relations with nobles.
Guy Chaussinand-Nogaret, The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: From Feudalism to Enlightenment (English tr., 1985). Another challenge to traditional interpretations. Remains controversial.
Jonathan Dewald, Aristocratic Experience and the Origins of Modern Culture: France, 1570–1715 (1993).
William Doyle, Venality: The Sale of Offices in Eighteenth Century France (1996). Much material on ennoblement by office.
Robert Forster, The House of Saulx-Tavanes: Versailles and Burgundy, 1700–1830 (1971).
Robert R. Harding, Anatomy of a Power Elite: The Provincial Governors of Early Modern France (1979).
David Higgs, Nobles in Nineteenth Century France: The Practice of Inegalitarianism (1987).
Mark Motley, Becoming a French Aristocrat: The Education of the Court Nobility, 1580–1715 (1990).
Ellery Schalk, From Valor to Pedigree: Ideas of Nobility in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century France (1986).
Jay M. Smith, The Culture of Merit: Nobility, Royal Service, and the Culture of Absolute Monarchy, 1600–1789 (1996).
Jay M. Smith (ed.), The French Nobility in the Eighteenth Century: Reassessments and New Approaches (2006).

(٦-٤) ألمانيا

B. Arnold, German Knighthood, 1050–1300 (1985).
Thomas M. Barker, Army, Aristocracy and Monarchy: Essays on War, Society and Government in Austria, 1618–1780 (1982).
Robert M. Berdahl, The Politics of the Prussian Nobility, 1770–1848 (1988).
Otto Brunner, Land and Lordship: Structures of Governance in Medieval Austria (English tr., 1992).
F. L. Carsten, A History of the Prussian Junkers (1989).
R. J. W. Evans, The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1550–1700 (1979).
William D. Godsey, Jr, Nobles and Nation in Central Europe: Free Imperial Knights in the Age of Revolution, 1750–1850 (2004).
Gregory Pedlow, The Survival of the Hessian Nobility, 1770–1870 (1989). Offers a wider view than the title promises.
Hans Rosenberg, Bureaucracy, Aristocracy and Autocracy: The Prussian Experience 1660–1815 (1958).
R. Gates-Coon, The Landed Estates of the Esterházy Princes (1994).

(٦-٥) إيطاليا

Tommaso Astarita, The Continuity of Feudal Power: The Carraciolo di Brienza in Spanish Naples (1992).
R. Burr Litchfield, Emergence of a Bureaucracy: The Florentine Patricians, 1530–1790 (1986).
J. C. Davis, The Decline of the Venetian Nobility as a Ruling Class (1962).
Gregory Hanlon, The Twilight of a Military Tradition: Italian Aristocrats and European Conflicts, 1560–1800 (1997).

(٦-٦) هولندا

H. K. F. Van Nierop, The Nobility of Holland: From Knights to Regents, 1500–1650 (1993).

(٦-٧) السويد

Michael Roberts, Essays in Swedish History (1967). Contains an important essay on Aristocratic Constitutionalism.
Michael Roberts, The Age of Liberty: Sweden 1719–1772 (1986).

(٦-٨) بولندا وأوروبا الشرقية

J. K. Fedorowicz (ed.), A Republic of Nobles: Studies in Polish History to 1864 (1982).
Jerzy Lukowski, Liberty’s Folly: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Eighteenth Century (1991).
Orest Subtelny, Domination of Eastern Europe: Native Nobilities and Foreign Absolutism, 1500–1715 (1986). Has aroused much disagreement.

(٦-٩) روسيا

Ivo Banac and Paul Bushkovitch (eds.), The Nobility in Russia and Eastern Europe (1983).
Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Centuries (1961).
Robert O. Crummey, Aristocrats and Servitors: The Boyar Elite in Russia, 1618–1689 (1983).
Paul Dukes, Catherine the Great and the Russian Nobility (1967).
T. Emmons, The Russian Landed Gentry and the Peasant Emancipation of 1861 (1968).
Robert E. Jones, The Emancipation of the Russian Nobility, 1762–1785 (1973).
Marc Raeff, Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia: The Eighteenth Century Nobility (1966).

(٧) الموضوعات

Jeroen Duindam, Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europe’s Dynastic Rivals, 1550–1780 (2003).
Mark Girouard, The Victorian Country House (1971).
Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House (1978). A best-seller, but not always convincing.
Mark Girouard, Life in the French Country House (2000).
Mark Girouard, The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman (1981).
V. G. Kiernan, The Duel in European History: Honour and the Reign of Aristocracy (1988).
Peter Mandler, The Fall and Rise of the Stately Home (1997). Brilliant survey, full of sharp insights.
Hugh Trevor-Roper, The Plunder of the Arts in the Seventeenth Century (1970).
Amanda Vickery, The Gentleman’s Daughter: Womens’ Lives in Georgian England (1999). Challenges the view that elite women were marginalized.
Martin Wiener, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit, 1850–1980 (1981). A tract for Thatcher’s times that has perhaps not outlasted her.

(٨) الأصوات الأرستقراطية

Most of the Roman historians wrote with aristocratic prejudices, but Cicero’s Letters to Atticus give a clear sense of what was at stake for the ruling orders in the republic’s last century. All well-educated nobles in later centuries knew them. A vivid picture of chivalric values in action is the epic of Tiran lo Blanc, devoured as late as the 18th century by Catherine the Great. Castiglione’s The Courtier is the most important, and still very readable, handbook of aristocratic conduct. An English equivalent is Sir Thomas Elyot’s The Boke called the Governor. Noble life under Louis XIV is elegantly chronicled in Mme de Sévigné’s Letters, while the world of his court is reported and commented upon in incomparable detail through the voluminous Memoirs of the Duke de Saint-Simon. Chesterfield’s Letters to His Son prescribe how to be a gentleman in the 18th century, while Montesquieu’s contemporaneous Spirit of the Laws reflects on the whole of aristocratic history in elaborating new rationales for noble behaviour. The memoirs of Princess Dashkov record the life of the Russian elite, at home and abroad, under Catherine, and the first volume of Alexander Herzen’s describes a noble upbringing in early 19th-century Russia. The literary skill of Chateaubriand makes the memoirs he sold for posthumous publication a memorable romantic description of changing noble fortunes over the revolutionary and Napoleonic upheavals. The sad dissolution of the Irish Ascendancy is movingly portrayed in David Thompson, Woodbrook. A trivial romp through what was left of noble ideals by the mid-20th century is Nancy Mitford (ed.), Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy (1956).

(٩) الأرستقراطية في الأدب

Cervantes’s Don Quixote is perhaps the best-known petty nobleman in literature, ridiculed and admired in equal measure. On the eve of the French Revolution, the heartlessness of nobles was unblinkingly depicted by Goethe in The Sorrows of Young Werther, Choderlos de Laclos in Dangerous Liaisons, or Beaumarchais’s play The Marriage of Figaro. Classic and timeless portrayals of the everyday values of gentlefolk are the novels of Jane Austen, particularly Persuasion and Mansfield Park. The obsessional hunting of Anthony Trollope gave him much first-hand material for the pictures of the Victorian landed classes found throughout his vast output, but particularly in the Palliser novels. See also R. Gilmour, The Idea of the Gentleman in the Victorian Novel (1981). The boredom of Russian noble life in the same century is amply chronicled, whether in Turgenev’s A Nest of Gentlefolk, Gogol’s Dead Souls, or Goncharov’s Oblomov. The equivalent for France are the elegiac novels of Marcel Proust. A somewhat fawning celebration of the exclusivism of English Catholic aristocrats in the 20th century was Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, subsequently made into a sumptuous television series based on one of the greatest of country houses, Castle Howard. And one of the best-selling novels of that century was turned into a superb film by the aristocratic Marxist Luchino Visconti: Prince Giuseppe di Lampedusa’s The Leopard is a marvellous portrait of a traditional Sicilian grandee confronted by the social and political challenges of the 19th century.