The Politics of Social Conflict: The Peak Country, 1520–1770 (Cambridge Studies in Early Mode British History)

by: Andy Wood (Author)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (16 Sept. 1999)

Language: English

Print length: 374 pages

ISBN-10: 0521561140

ISBN-13: 9780521561143

Book Description

This book provides an alteative approach to the history of social conflict, popular politics and plebeian culture in the early mode period. Based on a close study of the Peak Country of Derbyshire c.1520–1770, it has implications for understandings of class identity, popular culture, riot, custom and social relations. A detailed reconstruction of economic and social change within the region is followed by an in-depth examination of the changing cultural meanings of custom, gender, locality, skill, literacy, orality and magic. The local history of social conflict sheds light upon the nature of political engagement and the origins of early capitalism. Important insights are offered into early mode social and gender identities, civil war allegiances, the appeal of radical ideas and the making of the English working class. Above all, the book challenges the claim that early mode England was a hierarchical, ‘pre-class’ society.