Crime and Mentalities in Early Modern England [Hardcover]

An exploration of the cultural contexts of law-breaking and criminal prosecution in England, 15501750.Crime and the law have now been studied by historians of early modern England for more than a generation. This boo k attempts to reach further than most conventional treatments of the subject, to explore the cultural contexts of law-breaking and criminal prosecution, and to recover their hidden social meanings. It also examines in detail the crimes of witchcraft, coining--counterfeiting and coin-clipping--and murder, in order to reveal new and important insights into how the thinking of ordinary people was transformed between 1550 and 1750.Crime and the law have now been studied by historians of early modern England for more than a generation. This boo k attempts to reach further than most conventional treatments of the subject, to explore the cultural contexts of law-breaking and criminal prosecution, and to recover their hidden social meanings. It also examines in detail the crimes of witchcraft, coining--counterfeiting and coin-clipping--and murder, in order to reveal new and important insights into how the thinking of ordinary people was transformed between 1550 and 1750.Crime and the law have now been studied by historians of early modern England for more than a generation. This book attempts to reach further than most conventional treatments of the subject, to explore the cultural contexts of law-breaking and criminal prosecution, and to recover their hidden social meanings. It also examines in detail the crimes of witchcraft, coining--counterfeiting and coin-clipping--and murder, in order to reveal new and important insights into how the thinking of ordinary people was transformed between 1550 and 1750.Introduction: 1. Mentalities from crime; Part I. Witchcraft: 2. The social meaning of witchcraft, 15601680; 3. Witches in society and culture, 16801750; Part II. Coining: 4. The problem of coiners and the law; 5. Towards a solution? coining, state and peoplelã