State Formation in Early Modern England, c.1550-1700

by Michael J. Braddick

Overview

The seventeenth century has always been seen as important for the development of the modern English state. Over the past twenty years, however, this view has been criticized heavily and no general account of the development of the state in this period has yet emerged. On the basis of a wide-ranging synthesis of specialist work in diverse fields of English, British and colonial history, this book makes a novel argument about the modernization of the seventeenth-century English state, and of the role of class and gender interests in its development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521783460
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/07/2000
Pages:	460
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.98(d)
Lexile:	1550L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I. State Formation in Early Modern England: Introduction; 1. The embodiment of the state; 2. The uses of political power in early modern England; Conclusion; Part II. The Patriarchal State: Introduction; 3. Social order: poverty, dearth and disease; 4. The courts and social order; Conclusion; Part III. The Fiscal-Military State: Introduction; 5. The state and military mobilisation; 6. The financing of the state; Conclusion; Part IV. The Confessional State: Introduction; 7. The claims of the confessional state: local realities; Conclusion; Part V. The Dynastic State: Introduction; 8. Elite formation and state formation in England, Wales and Scotland; 9. London's provinces: state formation in the English-speaking Atlantic world; Conclusion.

Editorial Reviews

"Braddick leads an impressive tour through social, political and intellectual history in his account of state formation." Journal of Modern History

"One virtue of this volume is that it draws a number of topics of interest from 'other' social sciences and explicates them in the framework of the historian's language. There is little jargon, and putting the state back in the middle of it all is both an old tradition and a corrective to modern work that tends to relegate it to the outer boundaries...Braddick is to be commended for his discussion of important issues." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Braddick's achievement is one of theoretical synthesis, the incorporation of material that is familiar enough in other contexts into a new meganarrative, and one that is complex and flexible enough to look useful for colleagues and students alike. It is a fine piece of work." Historian

"...the author marshals an impressive array of works on social, political, military, and religious history." Seventeenth-Century News

"That this is a fine book—deeply informed, synoptic, carefully reasoned—there can be little doubt." Albion

"This is a major work of synthesis, offering important insights into 'th development of the English state in the long seventeenth century'... , notably the state's impact 'in English villages and wards' ... This is a fine book, well written, convincingly argued, and based on an astonishingly wide range of secondary literature." Sixteenth Century Journal

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