To be one of "the middling sort" in urban England in the late seventeenth or eighteenth century was to live a life tied, one way or another, to the world of com

This volume of essays seeks to offer a radical re-evaluation of most of our preconceptions about the early-modern English social order. This book attempts to de

The rise of social history has had a transforming influence on the history of early modern England. It has broadened the historical agenda to include many previ

This title will appeal to scholars and students of early modern social and economic history in England.

This text challenges American notions of democracy and ambition, culture and civic responsibility, charting a decline in democratic values and debate. It states