The Power of Gifts
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About This Book
Gifts are always with us: we use them positively to display affection and show gratitude for favours; we suspect that others give and accept them as douceurs and bribes. The gift also performed these roles in early modern English culture: and assumed a more significant role because networks of informal support and patronage were central to social and political behaviour. Favours, and their proper acknowledgement, were preoccupations of the age of Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Hobbes. As in modern so
Our Review
This insightful exploration of gift culture in early modern England reveals how presents shaped everything from personal relationships to political power during the era of Shakespeare and Erasmus. The book demonstrates that gifts weren't merely personal gestures but essential components of social survival, serving as both genuine expressions of affection and calculated tools for advancement. Through careful historical analysis, it shows how informal networks of support and patronage depended on the proper exchange of favors and their acknowledgment.
What makes this study particularly compelling is its nuanced examination of how gifts functioned simultaneously as sincere tokens and strategic bribes, mirroring our own complex relationship with giving today. Readers interested in social history, Renaissance culture, or the anthropology of exchange will find rich material in these pages about how presents built alliances and secured influence. The book ultimately illuminates how the seemingly simple act of gift-giving could determine one's place in the intricate social hierarchies of early modern England.
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