- Emeritus Professor of Medieval Social and Economic History, University of Manchester
During my academic career I have worked on a variety of different but related fields. Firstly, I have published a number of works on medieval English urban history, including my article on town government in D. Palliser, ed., The Cambridge Urban History of England, volume I (2000), my study of 'Urban population in late medieval England' (Economic History Review, 2010) and books on the medieval Lincolnshire towns of Grimsby and Boston. Secondly, I have offered wider discussions of medieval English social structure, most notably my English Society in the Later Middle Ages: Class, Status and Gender (1995). Thirdly, I have written works on historical and social theory including my Marxism and History (1987). Fourthly, I have published studies of medieval social and moral philosophers, including my article on the social and political thought of Christine de Pizan in Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes (2012, 2013), Finally, I have also published a number of interdisciplinary works which have sought to locate medieval literature in its historical context, including Chaucer and Context (1996) and Wisdom and Chivalry: Chaucer's Knight's Tale and Medieval Political Theory (2009). In addition, I have edited a four volumes: A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages (2003), Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death (2012), Historians on Chaucer (2014) and Historians on John Gower (2019).
Experience
-
–present1979: Lecturer in history; 1992: Senior lecturer in history; 1997: Reader in history; 2004: Professor of medieval social and economic history; 2010- Emeritus professor of medieval social and economic history , University of Manchester
Education
-
1983University of London , Ph.D.
-
1976University of Sheffield, B.A. (Hons), first class, medieval and modern history
Publications
-
2019‘Political Theory’, S. H. Rigby with S. Echard, eds, Historians on John Gower
-
2019‘Ideology’, P. Brown, ed., A New Companion to Chaucer
-
2019Historians on John Gower,
-
2017Boston, 1086-1225: A Medieval Boom Town,
-
2015‘Justifying inequality: peasants in medieval ideology’, M. Kowaleski, J. Langdon and P. Schofield, eds, Peasants and Lords in the Medieval English Economy
-
2014‘The Knight’,, S. H. Rigby and A. J. Minnis, eds, Historians on Chaucer: The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
-
2014‘Reading Chaucer: history, literature and ideology’, , S. H. Rigby and A. J. Minnis, eds, Historians on Chaucer: The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
-
2014Historians on Chaucer: The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales,
-
2013‘‘Worthy but wise? Virtuous and non-virtuous forms of courage in the later middle ages’, Studies in the Age of Chaucer
-
2013‘The body politic in the social and political thought of Christine de Pizan, Part II, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes
-
2012‘The body politic in the social and political thought of Christine de Pizan, Part I, Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales et Humanistes,
-
2012Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death,
-
2012‘Medieval Boston: economy, society and administration’, . Badham and P. Cockerham, eds, ‘The beste and fayrest of al Lincolnshire’: The Church of St Botolph's, Boston, Lincolnshire, and its Medieval Monuments
-
2011‘Aristotle for aristocrats and poets: Giles of Rome's De regimine principum as theodicy of privilege’, Chaucer Review
-
2010‘Urban population in late medieval England: the evidence of the lay subsidies’, Economic History Review
-
2009Wisdom and Chivalry: Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Medieval Political Theory ,
-
2008‘Ideology and utopia: prudence and magnificence, kingship and tyranny in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale’, M. Davies and A. Prescott, eds, London and the Kingdom: Essays in Honour of Caroline M. Barron
-
2007‘English society in the later middle ages: deference, ambition and conflict’, P. Brown, ed., A Companion to Medieval English Literature and Culture, c.1350-c.1500
-
2006‘Social structure and economic change in late medieval England’, R. Horrox and M. Ormrod, eds, A Social History of England, 1200-1500
-
2005‘Society and politics’, S. Ellis, ed., An Oxford Guide to Chaucer
-
2005The Overseas Trade of Boston in the Reign of Richard II,
-
2004‘Historical materialism: social structure and social change in the Middle Ages’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
-
2003A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages ,
-
2003‘England: literature and society’, S. H. Rigby, ed., A Companion to Britain in the Later Middle Ages
-
2000‘The Wife of Bath, Christine de Pizan and the medieval case for women’, Chaucer Review
-
2000‘Government, power and authority, 1300-1540’, D. Palliser, ed., Cambridge Urban History of Britain, volume I
-
1999‘Approaches to pre-industrial social structure’, J. H. Denton, ed., Orders and Hierarchies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Europe
-
1998Marxism and History (2nd edition),
-
1997‘Marxist historiography’ , M. Bentley, ed., Companion to Historiography
-
1996Chaucer in Context,
-
1995English Society in the Later Middle Ages,
-
1995‘Historical causation: is one thing more important than another?’, History
-
1993Medieval Grimsby ,
-
1992Engels and the Formation of Marxism,
-
1988‘Urban “oligarchy” in the later middle ages’, J. A. F. Thomson, ed., Towns and Townspeople in the Fifteenth Century
-
1987Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction ,
-
1986‘Late medieval urban prosperity: the evidence of the lay subsidies’, Economic History Review
-
1984‘Urban decline in the later middle ages: the reliability of the non-statistical evidence’, Urban History Yearbook
-
1979‘Urban decline in the later middle ages: some problems of interpreting the statistical data’, Urban History Yearbook
Grants and Contracts
-
1994E.S.R.C. Senior research Fellowship
- Role:
- Funding Source:
-
1992Nuffield Social Science Fellowship
- Role:
- Funding Source:
Professional Memberships
- Royal Historical Society
Honours
F.R.H.S.
Contact Stephen for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Location: Manchester
- Article Feed
- Joined
