English society, 1660-1832 : religion, ideology, and politics during the ancien regime

This classic work of recent historiography broke the hold of the "old guard" on this key period of English history. It has now been extensively rewritten, and in its updated form reinforces its arguments with new evidence and addresses some of the historical preoccupations of the past fifteen years. This is a revised and rewritten edition of a work first published in 1985 as English Society 1688-1832. That book arrived at the opening of a new phase in English historiography, which questioned much of the received picture of English society as secular, modernising, contractarian, and middle class; it began the recovery of the 'long eighteenth century', the period which saw a form of state defined by the close relationship of monarchy, aristocracy and church. In particular, it placed religion at the center of social and intellectual life, and used ecclesiastical history to illuminate many historical themes more commonly examined in a secular framework. In its updated form, this book reinforces these theses with new evidence, which extends its arguments into fresh areas of inquiry In the histories of many societies, one great episode stands proxy for the rest: 1776 in the United States, 1789 in France, 1917 in Russia.