The Local Origins of Modern Society: Gloucestershire 1500-1800

by David Rollison

Overview

Through a series of sharply focused studies spanning three centuries, David Rollison explores the rise of capitalist manufacturing in the English countryside and the revolution in consciousness that accompanied it. Combining the empiricism of English historiography with the rationalism of Annales, and drawing on ideas from a wide range of disciplines, he argues that the explosive implications of the rise of rural industry created new social formations and altered the communal, cultural and social contexts of peoples lives. Using localized case studies of families and individuals the book starts with significant detail and moves out to build up a subtle and innovative view of English cultural identities in the early modern period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415070003
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/29/1992
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements, Note on sources, method and perspectives, Introduction Country capitalism, Part I. Cradles of change, 1. CRADLES OF CHANGE: THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS, 2. TRAILS OF PROGRESS: THE REORIENTATION AND INTENSIFICATION OF TRAFFIC, 1600–1800, Part II. Neighbourhood to nation, 3. PROVERBIAL CULTURE, 4. TYNDALE AND ALL HIS SECT, 5. NEIGHBOURHOOD TO NATION: THE TROTMANS: A MIDDLE-RANK KIN-COALITION, 1512–1712, Part III. Two revolutionaries, 6. ‘SMALL THINGES AND GRANDE DESIGNES’: A REVOLUTIONARY’S HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION, 7. CUNNING MAN AND QUAKER: JOHN ROBERTS OF SIDDINGTON ST MARY, Part IV. The multitudes around us, 8. COMMUNITY AT THE BORDERS: MOCKERY AND MISRULE IN AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INDUSTRIAL VILLAGE, 9. ‘A CONCATENATION OF VICIOUS HABITS’: A SEASON OF RIOTS AND A PUBLIC DISCUSSION, 1738–41, 10. LASTING PREJUDICES: LANGUAGES OF SOCIAL DISCRIMINATION, Notes and references, Index

Editorial Reviews

‘... a wonderfully insightful work, ... Rollison has written a major piece of suggestive scholarship ... The Local Origins of Modern Society is a book to be savoured and, I hope, one to be shared with all ranks; I recommend it enthusiastically.' - Social History

From the Publisher