The Experience of Authority in Early Modern England [Paperback]

This collection is concerned with the articulation, mediation and reception of authority; the preoccupations and aspirations of both governors and governed in early modern England. It explores the nature of authority and the cultural and social experiences of all social groups, especially insubordinates. These essays probe in depth the ways in which young people responded to adults, women to men, workers to masters, and the 'common sort' to their 'betters'. Early modern people were not passive receptacles of principles of authority as communicated in, for example, sermons, statutes and legal process. They actively contributed to the process of government, thereby exposing its strengths, weaknesses and ambiguities. In discussing these issues the contributors provide fresh points of entry to a period of significant cultural and socio-economic change.

Preface.- List of Figures.- List of Maps.- The Politics of the Parish in Early Modern England; K. Wrightson.- Reformation of Manners in Early Modern England; M. Ingram Custom.- Memory and the Authority of Writing; A. Fox.- Separate Domains: Women and Authority in Early Modern England; B. Capp Masterless.- Young People in Norwich, 1560-1645; P. Griffiths.- Disruption in the Well-Ordered Household: Age, Authority and Possessed Young People; J.A. Sharpe.- The Keeping of the Public Peace; S. Hindle.- Custom, Identity and Resistance: English Free Miners and Their Law, c. 1550-1800; A.- Wood Employment and Authority: Masters and Men in Eighteenth Century Manufacturing; J. Rule.- Notes on Contributors.- Index.

PAUL GRIFFITHS is lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of Leicester.
ADAM FOX is lecturer in the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh.
STEVE HINDLE is Research Fellow in the Department of History at the University of Warwick