A brilliant and persuasive synthesis of the best recent work in all fields of seventeenth century English history."--Christopher Hill "A triumphant success . . . deserves to be widely read."--H. T. Dickinson "Conceived as an intellectual whole and vibrantly alive."--John Kenyon, The Observer English Society, 1580-1680 paints a fascinating picture of society and societal change in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It discusses both the enduring characteristics of society as well as the course of social change. The book emphasizes the wide variation in experience between different social groups and local communities, and the unevenness of the process of transition, to build up an overall interpretation of continuity and change. In this edition, Keith Wrightson provides a new introduction to set the book in its context and to reflect on recent research, together with an updated guide to further reading. Keith Wrightson is a professor of history at Yale University. His many books include Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain.
This important new book, widely praised in hardcover (Yale UP) redefines the economic history of early modern Britain for a new generation of readers. Wrightson writes evocatively about the basic institutions and relationships of economic life, tracing the process of change, and examining how these changes affected men, women and children at all social levels. Novel in its structure, scope, and emphasis on the lived experience of the period, the book vividly demonstrates the gains and costs of economic change.
The plague outbreak of 1636 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne was one of the most devastating in English history. This hugely moving study looks in detail at its impact on the city through the eyes of a man who stayed as others fled: the scrivener Ralph Tailor. As a scrivener Tailor was responsible for many of the wills and inventories of his fellow citizens. By listening to and writing down the final wishes of the dying, the young scrivener often became the principal provider of comfort in people’s last hours. Drawing on the rich records left by Tailor during the course of his work along with many other sources, Keith Wrightson vividly reconstructs life in the early modern city during a time of crisis and envisions what such a calamitous decimation of the population must have meant for personal, familial, and social relations.
A brilliant and persuasive synthesis of the best recent work in all fields of seventeenth century English history."--Christopher Hill "A triumphant success . . . deserves to be widely read."--H. T. Dickinson "Conceived as an intellectual whole and vibrantly alive."--John Kenyon, The Observer English Society, 1580-1680 paints a fascinating picture of society and societal change in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It discusses both the enduring characteristics of society as well as the course of social change. The book emphasizes the wide variation in experience between different social groups and local communities, and the unevenness of the process of transition, to build up an overall interpretation of continuity and change. In this edition, Keith Wrightson provides a new introduction to set the book in its context and to reflect on recent research, together with an updated guide to further reading. Keith Wrightson is a professor of history at Yale University. His many books include Earthly Necessities: Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain.
This is a study of a single community in early modern England. The authors examine the interaction of demographic, economic, social, administrative and cultural change on the villagers of Terling between 1525 and 1700.
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