I'm looking for a broad overview here, and I understand that probably nobody wants to write me a book in the comments :) I found Pierre Goubert's "The French Peasantry in the Seventeenth Century". I'm wondering if that would generally be considered a good place to start, or if people would add recommendations.

The types of questions I'd hope this book would help answer:

• To what social/economic institution did a typical peasant owe his strongest/weakest allegiances? (ie immediate family, village, church, religion, local lord, employer, army unit, nation, etc) And why?

• What did a typical peasant enjoy? What did he fear?

• What types of constraints informed economic life? What sorts of desirable items and services were easy for a peasant to get? Which ones were more difficult?

• What would a typical peasant hope to do with their life?

Thanks very much for your suggestions.