[lbo-talk] World War as Class War

[C. G. Estabrook]

Not a joke, if a necessary simplification.  Their disputes were as serious as 
ours - and perhaps need to be rescued from "the enormous condescension of 
posterity."  --CGE

Michael Pollak wrote:
> 
>> It's been argued that the Ghibellines as feudal landowners largely 
>> supported the emperor, while the Guelfs represented mercantile 
>> interests in the late-medieval towns of N Italy and S Germany.
> 
> That's a way oversimplification that...
> 
> Waitasecond.  This was a joke.  We're falling for it.
> 
> At any rate, the G&G thing wasn't a debate.  It was a struggle for 
> military and political dominance.  It ended in any given town once one 
> side pushed the other out and sold all their stuff.  In Florence, that 
> was in 1289.  After that, no more Guelf Ghibelline conflict.
> 
> After which of course the Guelfs almost immediately divided into the 
> White and Black Guelfs and they fought each other.
> 
> Don't Ever Antagonize The Horn,
> 
> Michael
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk