Description
Book SynopsisThe Origins of English Individualism is about the nature of English society during the five centuries leading up to the Industrial Revolution, and the crucial differences between England and other European nations.
Trade Review"Historians are said to be moving back towards the idea of an enduring national identity. Alan Macfarlane wrote a paradigm-busting book back in the late 1970s,
The Origins of English Individualism. That must have taken courage considering the sort of a decade it was ... A brilliant analysis."
The IndependentTable of ContentsApologies and acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations and conventions x
List of abbreviated titles xi
Introduction 1
1 The nature of a peasant society 7
2 When England ceased to be a peasant society: Marx, Weber and the historians 34
3 English economy and society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 62
4 Ownership in England from 1350 to 1750 80
5 Ownership in England from 1200 to 1349 102
6 English economy and society in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries 131
7 England in perspective 165
8 Some implications 189
Postscript 204
List of manuscript sources 207
Index 210
