Customer Reviews

Early Modern England: A Social History 1550-1760 (Hodder Arnold Publication)

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Undoubtedly, students of Tudor/Stuart England should turn to this volume. It's all here, leading off with a basic chronology of the period, and moving on to a wide range of subjects from agriculture to divorce. The scholarship is top-notch.

The book has several flaws, though. The first is that common error in scholarly writing, the use of overly complex language to convey simple ideas. Pg. 39: "One of the major discoveries attendant on family reconstitution was the finding that, contrary to a very persistent myth, the inhabitants of early modern England tended to marry fairly late in life." How about, "Contrary to myth, people in early modern England married late in life."

Another related issue is an unfortunate pomposity of tone: pg. 37: "Whatever the drawbacks of registers an an historical source, it is no accident that historical demographers should refer to the period 1538 - 1801 as 'the parish register era.'" Aside from the highly unlikely event of anyone would think that such a thing could be an accident . . . one too easily imagine this line delivered by an English butler who swallowed a dictionary. That is unfortunate. It interferes with clarity, which after all is one of the primary goals for a work such as this. Clarity and simplicity of language were problematic throughout this book.

A third issue is more subtle, and reminds us that this book was first issued over 20 years ago. There is a tone of amazement throughout that things in this era were not worse than they were. Women were not forced to marry against their wills. Husbands and wives loved each other. Parents and children were attached to each other. Religious people were often sincere. And so on. When this book was written, I suppose these things were news, and students and even scholars might have thought that this period was a nightmare of economic-based marriages, women with no choice whatsoever . . . etc. But it's been quite awhile since those myths were pared down, and it seems, to this reader anyhow, that they can be discussed and reshaped with more dispatch, and with less of a tone of amazement.

There are more readable volumes out there on this period; "The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor and Stuart Britain" is one such choice.