Product Description This book looks at petitions over the last five centuries to reconstruct the lives and opinions of "humble" petitioners. Since Pharaonic times, governments have allowed their subjects to voice opinions in the form of petitions, which have demanded a favor or the redressment of an injustice. To be effective, a petition had to mention the request, usually a motivation and always the name or names of the petitioners. As a result, grievances of ordinary people which were not written down anywhere else are now stored safely in the archives of the authorities to which the petitions were addressed. The petitions considered in this book, which come from all over the globe, offer rich and valuable sources for social historians. Book Description This book looks at petitions over the last five centuries to reconstruct the lives and opinions of 'humble' petitioners. To be effective, a petition had to mention the request, usually a motivation and always the name or names of the petitioners. As a result, grievances of ordinary people which were not written down anywhere else are now stored safely in the archives of the authorities to which the petitions were addressed. The petitions considered, which come from all over the globe, offer rich and valuable sources for social historians. About the Author Lex Heerma van Voss (d.o.b.7 June 1955) studied Social and Economic History in Utrecht and Paris. He wrote his dissertation on the introduction of the Eight Hour working day in the Netherlands and published on the social history of the Netherlands in the Modern period and the North Sea area in the Early Modern period. He organised the European Social Science History Conference and co-edited volumes on Dock Workers, North Sea Culture, Industrial Conflict, Working-Class and Popular Culture, Generations, the Social History of Clothing, the Trade in Textiles and West-European Labour Historiography.