0521561140.Cambridge.University.Press.The.Politics.of.Social.Conflict.The.Peak.Country.1520-1770.Sep.1999.pdf

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THE POLITICS OF SOCIAL CONFLICT
THE PEAK COUNTRY, 1520±1770
This book provides a new approach to the history of social con¯ict, popular politics
and plebeian culture in the early modern period. Based upon a close study of the
Peak Country of Derbyshire between c. 1520 and 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 con¯ict
sheds new light on the nature of political engagement and the origins of early
capitalism. Important insights are provided into early modern social and gender
identities, civil war allegiances, the appeal of radical ideas and the making of the
English working class. Most of all, the book challenges the claim that early modern
England was a hierarchical, `pre-class' society.
ANDY WOOD is Lecturer in History, University of East Anglia
Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History
Series editors
anthony ¯etcher
Professor of History, University of Essex
john guy
Professor of Modern History, University of St Andrews
john morrill
Professor of British and Irish History, University of Cambridge,
and Vice Master of Selwyn College
This is a series of monographs and studies covering many aspects of the history of
the British Isles between the late ®fteenth century and early eighteenth century. It
includes the work of established scholars and pioneering work by a new generation
of scholars. It includes both reviews and revisions of major topics and books which
open up new historical terrain or which reveal startling new perspectives on familiar
subjects. All the volumes set detailed research into broader perspectives and the
books are intended for the use of students as wel