English Society, 1580-1680

by Keith Wrightson

English Society, 1580-1680 paints a fascinating picture of society and rural change in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Keith Wrightson discusses both the enduring characteristics of society as well as the course of social change, and emphasizes the wide variation in experience between different social groups and local communities. This is an excellent interpretation of English society, its continuity and its change.

Genres: History, British Literature, Nonfiction, 17th Century, Reference

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Keith E. Wrightson, Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History, is a scholar of early modern British history. His books, which have been credited for their novel approach to English social and cultural history, include Poverty and Piety in an English Village: Terling, 1525-1700 (co-authored with David Levine), The Making of an Industrial Society. Whickham 1560-1765 (also with Levine), English Society, 1580-1680 and Earthly Necessities. Economic Lives in Early Modern Britain. He is a contributing editor of The Illustrated Dictionary of British History and co-editor of The World We Have Gained: Histories of Population and Social Structure. Essays Presented to Peter Laslett on His 70th Birthday. Wrightson has also contributed chapters to numerous books.

Wrightson earned his BA, MA and PhD from Cambridge University and began his teaching career at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he was a lecturer in modern history 1975-1984. He returned to Cambridge in 1984, serving as the University Lecturer in History and later as director of studies in history and a reader in English social history. He became a full professor of social history there in 1998 and joined the Yale faculty a year later.

The historian has held visiting professorships at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto, among others, and has been an invited lecturer at universities and in conferences throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, China, Russia and the United States. He was the James Ford Special Lecturer at the University of Oxford in 1993 and presented the British Academy's Raleigh Lecture in the fall of 2005.

At Yale, Wrightson has served as director of undergraduate studies in history and has chaired the Renaissance Studies Program. He has also served on a number of University advisory boards.

In 2001, Wrightson was awarded the John Ben Snow Prize, presented by the North American Conference on British Studies. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the British Academy. He serves on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals.

Reviews

[Hank Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid, inoffensive, balanced overview of English Society from 1580-1680.

[Sam Olvey]

'most nuanced performance' for my role as the white witch

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thorough overview of the period, pretty readable if you skim all the statistics, which I did. Wrightson's favorite phrase is, "We must be careful not to exaggerate..." and to his credit, that's exactly what he did best.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very accessible and fascinating study into the hierarchies of late Elizabethan and Stuart England. Essential research, particularly regarding the cost of living and the lives of 'gentlemen'. Great stuff.

[Doug DePalma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social history that occasionally fails to fully fulfill its project of understanding the ideology of different sectors of Revolutionary England, but if you're looking for a standard history to get your feet wet, this is an excellent choice.

[Rachael MacLean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social history. Comprehensive. Good arguments about religion and social polarization. Arguments are quite middle of the road, though. Says "this should not be exaggerated" a lot.