Society in early modern England - Phil Withington

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have traditionally beenregarded by historians as a period of intense and formativehistorical change, so much so that they have often been describedas 'early modern' - an epoch separate from 'themedieval' and 'the modern'. Paying particular attention toEngland, this book reflects on the implications of thiscategorization for contemporary debates about the nature ofmodernity and society.

The book traces the forgotten history of the phrase 'earlymodern' to its coinage as a category of historical analysis by theVictorians and considers when and why words like 'modern' and'society' were first introduced into English in the sixteenth andseventeenth centuries. In so doing it unpicks the connectionsbetween linguistic and social change and how the consequences ofthose processes still resonate today.

A major contribution to our understanding of European historybefore 1700 and its resonance for social thought today, the bookwill interest anybody concerned with the historical antecedents ofcontemporary culture and the interconnections between the past andthe present.