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New directions in the historiography of the administration of the Bloody Code
Author(s) -
Walliss John
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12463
Subject(s) - bloody , historiography , elite , code (set theory) , theme (computing) , history , work (physics) , marxist philosophy , law , literature , political science , engineering , art , computer science , politics , archaeology , mechanical engineering , programming language , world wide web , set (abstract data type)
In this article, I will review the recent historiography of the administration of the so‐called Bloody Code of the long eighteenth century. The 1970s and 1980s witnessed a debate among Marxist historians and others over the extent to which the Bloody Code operated as a tool of the ruling elite to protect property interests. In recent years, however, several historians have begun to explore a different series of questions in regard to the Bloody Code. One theme that unites the current work is an emphasis on the variability of the Bloody Code. In the article, I discuss three areas of variability highlighted by this work: time, geography, and judicial decision‐making.