social history of england essay

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A Social History of England, 1500–1750, ed. Keith Wrightson

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Jonathan Healey, A Social History of England, 1500–1750, ed. Keith Wrightson, The English Historical Review , Volume 134, Issue 566, February 2019, Pages 212–213, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/cey367

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Good textbooks on the social history of ‘early modern’ England are a rare thing. James Sharpe’s Early Modern England: A Social History 1550–1750 (originally published in 1987) and Keith Wrightson’s English Society 1580–1680 (1982; rev. ante , cccxcii [1984], 610–11) have long dominated university reading lists. These books reflected the scope of the field at the time, still looking back to Peter Laslett’s pioneering work in the 1960s and ’70s, making use of what was then quite radical new archival research in county record offices, and still somewhat reliant on the canon of ‘classic’ early modern diaries and memoirs: not Pepys and Evelyn so much as Richard Gough, Ralph Josselin and Adam Eyre.

The field has come some way since those initial textbooks, as scholarship (much of it by Wrightson’s own students) sought to expand, clarify and nuance the initial findings of that generation. This collection reflects those efforts, and it will be of immeasurable value to students and teachers of the period, collating as it does much of the most important recent scholarship on a variety of critical topics into manageable chapters. Each contribution has its own argument and its own nuances. Wrightson, as editor, is at pains to point out that there is no party line, though it must be said that the overarching themes of marketisation, growing rural inequality and the rise of the ‘middling sort’ are nicely in harmony with his own view of the period. For this remains a ‘Wrightsonian’ book: a large number of the authors were his students and others were his colleagues at Cambridge, and this is surely reflected in the approach. Communities, social structures and the impact of the massive growth in the economic and cultural power of the ‘middling sort’ are running themes.

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Social and Cultural Life in England Throughout History Essay

The social and cultural life in England has seen some major changes over the course of its history. Particularly, the ways in which universities affected the society were altered. In the medieval era, religion and the church defined the ideas and philosophies that were accepted and strictly followed by the society. Therefore, the academic setting of medieval England could also be described as highly dependent on the church and the philosophy that it encouraged.

However, the following secularization took its toll on the academic environment. With the alterations in the state philosophies and priorities, the usefulness of universities has grown. Providing the foundation for the progress, universities have spurred the economic growth of the state, therefore, prompting a significant change.

Nowadays, several elements of the English universities bear a distinct connection to the medieval times. For instance, the idea of higher education being a chance to enter an entirely new world that gives a chance to learn and research persists in English universities. However, the sense of purpose that universities have gained since then is quite new. The focus on research and exploration of new areas opens new horizons for students and teachers. Thus, scientific progress has become a possibility.

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1. IvyPanda . "Social and Cultural Life in England Throughout History." May 15, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/social-and-cultural-life-in-england-throughout-history/.

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IvyPanda . "Social and Cultural Life in England Throughout History." May 15, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/social-and-cultural-life-in-england-throughout-history/.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section England, 1485-1642

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England, 1485-1642 by Sarah Covington LAST REVIEWED: 30 April 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 10 May 2010 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195399301-0019

The scholarship on Tudor and Stuart England constitutes a parallel universe in its own right, with its sometimes acrimonious debates threatening to paralyze the student (and even specialist) from coming to any clarity or conclusions at all (unless, perhaps, he or she simply submits to the latest historiographical orthodoxy). Aside from the English Civil War, which has been called the “Mount Everest” of English scholarship, debates have centered upon whether the Reformation was “top down” or “bottom up”: religion as a whole was Protestant, Catholic, or something in between; the nobility and the gentry in crisis or ascendant; the Restoration representative of continuity or change; and the events of 1688 momentous, or not. Terms such as “revisionism,” “postrevisionism,” or “neo-Whiggism” convey such confusion, but they are unavoidable when it comes to entering, on a deeper level, the notoriously vexed scholarship of the period. Such debates also testify to the extremely rich nature of the Tudor and Stuart period in England, which continues to yield new insights, interpretations, and conclusions regarding political culture, social relations, the nature of religious belief and allegiance, or causality when it comes to an event as momentous as the civil war. The following entry is limited to the most important or representative works, including studies whose claims have been long discredited or put aside but nevertheless remain important in conveying the full scope of the research and conclusions yielded by the subject at hand. Many more sources (and subjects) could have been added, just as databases such as the Royal Historical Society’s annual bibliography continue to list hundreds of new books and articles each year.

A number of excellent textbooks exist on Tudor and Stuart England, though with the exception of Bucholz and Key 2009 and Smith 1997 , they tend to divide the Tudor and Stuart periods. Guy 1988 provides one of the best overviews of the Tudor age, with an emphasis on politics, while the 17th century is best represented by Kishlansky 1997 , which also focuses on politics, and Coward 2003 , which incorporates more extensive economic and social history. More recent studies such as Brigden 2000 and Nicholls 1999 have also taken care to incorporate Ireland (in Brigden’s case especially) and the British Isles into the history, and to provide some overview of the historiographical debates.

Brigden, Susan. New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors, 1485–1603 . New York: Viking, 2000.

A well-presented narrative of the Tudor century, incorporating new approaches and particularly strong in its presentation of Ireland and the Atlantic world.

Bucholz, Robert, and Newton Key. Early Modern England, 1485–1714: A Narrative History . 2nd ed. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

An excellent narrative and analytical approach that incorporates social, economic, religious, and cultural as well as political history.

Coward, Barry. The Stuart Age: England, 1603–1714 . 3d ed. London: Longman, 2003.

The best recent textbook on the Stuart age, utilizing the latest scholarship and focusing on the economy, society, and politics as well as the civil war and its aftermath. Very useful bibliographic essay at the end and relatively good coverage of Scotland and Ireland.

Guy, John. Tudor England . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Perhaps the best analytical narrative and overview of Tudor England, incorporating original research and conclusions. Above all a political history, the work concludes that the Tudor reigns, including Elizabeth’s, were in large part a success and certainly transformative of the English polity by the end of the century.

Kishlansky, Mark. A Monarchy Transformed: Britain, 1603–1714 . London: Penguin, 1997.

A clear and well-written political narrative designed for the student and nonspecialist, extending from the reign of James I through Anne and tracing developments in the institution of the monarchy and also including the parallel histories of Scotland and Ireland.

Nicholls, Mark. A History of the Modern British Isles, 1529–1603: The Two Kingdoms . Oxford: Blackwell, 1999.

An ambitious study that encompasses Wales, Scotland, and Ireland as well as England, including distinctly non-Anglocentric perspectives. Nicholls explicitly rejects the notion that any common or unifying “themes” underlay or brought together these kingdoms, nor that there was any idea or policy of “Britishness” other than the imposition of England’s will on others.

Smith, A. G. R. The Emergence of a Nation State: The Commonwealth of England, 1529–1660 . 2d ed. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education Ltd., 1997.

One of the best surveys of England, beginning with the Reformation and continuing through the English civil war, with useful introductions to the historiographical debates, and excellent maps, glossaries, and bibliography.

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A SOCIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, 1200–1500

What was life really like in England in the later middle ages? This comprehensive introduction explores the full breadth of English life and society in the period 1200–1500. Opening with a survey of historiographical and demographic debates, the book then explores the central themes of later medieval society, including the social hierarchy, life in towns and the countryside, religious belief, and forms of individual and collective identity. Clustered around these themes a series of authoritative essays develops our understanding of other important social and cultural features of the period, including the experience of war, work, law and order, youth and old age, ritual, travel and transport, and the development of writing and reading. Written in an accessible and engaging manner by an international team of leading scholars, this book is indispensable both as an introduction for students and as a resource for specialists.

R OSEMARY H ORROX is Fellow in History, Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, and lectures and writes extensively on later medieval English history. She is the author of Richard III: a study of service (1989) and The Black Death (1994), and editor of Fifteenth-Century Attitudes (1994) and Beverley Minster: an illustrated history (2000).

W. M ARK O RMROD is Professor of Medieval History at the University of York and is a specialist in the history of later medieval England. He is the author of The Reign of Edward III (1990) and Political Life in Medieval England 1300–1450 (1995), and has edited (with Philip Lindley) The Black Death in England (1996) and (with Nicola McDonald) Rites of Passage: cultures of transition in fourteenth-century England (2004).

A Social History of England, 1200–1500

Edited by rosemary horrox and w. mark ormrod, illustrations.

This book is intended as a comprehensive and accessible account of the society of England between the early thirteenth and the late fifteenth centuries. The dates 1200–1500 conventionally describe the ‘later middle ages’ in England, but are obviously not impermeable: some of the contributions that follow necessarily take certain matters back to the eleventh and forward to the sixteenth centuries. The book is organised around five large chapters which provide analyses of the historiographical background and the debate about demography (chapter 1), the social hierarchy and attitudes towards it (chapter 2), the experience of life in towns (chapter 6) and in the countryside (chapter 7), the forms of religious belief current in the society (chapter 2) and the other kinds of identity, individual and collective, that built on and helped to inform social organisation (chapter 15). Around these chapters is a series of shorter, more specialised studies that develops further some of the major themes from war to work, law to literacy, consumerism to magic.

The book thus aims to respond to a new agenda of social history which has extended the range of the sub-discipline from a preoccupation with the material existence of the lower orders to include a range of non-material aspects of life including attitudes to work and to crime, the development of ideas about nationality, and the existence (or otherwise) of self-consciousness or ‘individualism’. As such, this book draws no distinction between ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ history, and tries to represent the experience of those who lived in the later middle ages in as broad a manner as possible. An important part of this holistic approach involves an understanding that interpretation of historical evidence is often unstable, reflecting in turn the patchy nature of the evidence. This is particularly evident with regard to the estimates of the population of England before and after the Black Death, and we have aimed not to impose arbitrary figures but to allow different contributors to set out their own arguments on this important and still controversial theme.

In the notes the place of publication is London, unless otherwise stated.

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English Social History

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Book Source: Digital Library of India Item 2015.273135

dc.contributor.author: G.m. Trevelyan dc.date.accessioned: 2015-07-29T19:28:43Z dc.date.available: 2015-07-29T19:28:43Z dc.date.citation: 1946 dc.identifier.barcode: 05990010894928 dc.identifier.origpath: /data58/upload/0096/645 dc.identifier.copyno: 1 dc.identifier.uri: http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/273135 dc.description.scannerno: 20003546 dc.description.scanningcentre: IIIT, Allahabad dc.description.main: 1 dc.description.tagged: 0 dc.description.totalpages: 648 dc.format.mimetype: application/pdf dc.language.iso: English dc.publisher.digitalrepublisher: Digital Library Of India dc.publisher: Longmans Green And Co. London dc.relation: null dc.source.library: Bharti Bhawan Library Allahabad dc.title: English Social History dc.type: ptiff dc.type: pdf

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