Popular Culture and Political Agency in Early Modern England and Ireland: Essays in Honour of John Walter (Studies in Early Modern Cultural, Political and Social History, 26)

An outstanding collection, bringing together some of the leading historians of this period with some of the field's rising stars, which examines key issues in popular politics, the negotiation of power, strategies of legitimation,and the languages of politics. One of the most notable currents in social, cultural and political historiography is the interrogation of the categories of 'elite' and 'popular' politics and their relationship to each other, as well as the exploration of why andhow different sorts of people engaged with politics and behaved politically. While such issues are timeless, they hold a special importance for a society experiencing rapid political and social change, like early modern England.No one has done more to define these agendas for early modern historians than John Walter. His work has been hugely influential, and at its heart has been the analysis of the political agency of ordinary people. The essays in thisvolume engage with the central issues of Walter's work, ranging across the politics of poverty, dearth and household, popular political consciousness and practice more broadly, and religion and politics during the English revolution. This outstanding collection, bringing together some of the leading historians of this period with some of the field's rising stars, will appeal to anyone interested in the social, cultural and political history of early modern England or issues of popular political consciousness and behaviour more generally. MICHAEL J. BRADDICK is professor of history at the University of Sheffield. PHIL WITHINGTON is professor of history at the Universityof Sheffield. CONTRIBUTORS: Michael J. Braddick, J. C. Davis, Amanda Flather, Steve Hindle, Mark Knights, John Morrill, Alexandra Shepard, Paul Slack, Richard M. Smith, Clodagh Tait, Keith Thomas, Phil Withington, Andy Wood, Keith Wrightson. Frontcover 1 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 List of Contributors 11 Acknowledgements 14 List of Abbreviations 15 Introduction 16 1 John Walter and the social history of early modern England 30 2 Contrasting susceptibility to famine in early fourteenth- and late sixteenth-century England: the significance of late medieval rural social structural and village governmental changes 50 3 The politics of English political economy in the 1620s 70 4 Provision, household management and the moral authority of wives and mothers in early modern England 88 5 Popular senses of past time: dating events in the North Country, 1615–1631 106 6 Spectral lordship, popular memory and the boggart of Towneley Hall 124 7 Self-image and public image in the career of a Jacobean magistrate: Sir John Newdigate in the Court of Star Chamber 138 8 Gender, agency and religious change in early Stuart England 160 9 ‘A Standard which can never fail us’: the Golden Rule and the construction of a public transcript in early modern England 180 10 Religion, anti-popery and corruption 196 11 An ‘Aristotelian moment’: democracy in early modern England 218 12 John Lilburne and political agency in revolutionary England 238 13 An Irish Protestation? Oaths and the Confederation of Kilkenny 258 14 ‘Whereat his wife tooke great greef & died’: dying of sorrow and killing in anger in seventeenth-century Ireland 282 Bibliography for John Walter 300 Index 306 Tabula Gratulatoria 326 One of the most notable currents in social, cultural and political historiography is the interrogation of the categories of 'elite' and 'popular' politics and their relationship to each other, as well as the exploration of why and how different sorts of people engaged with politics and behaved politically. While such issues are timeless, they hold a special importance for a society experiencing rapid political and social change, like early modern England. No one has done more to define these agendas for early modern historians than John Walter. His work has been hugely influential, and at its heart has been the analysis of the political agency of ordinary people. The essays in this volume engage with the central issues of Walter's work, ranging across the politics of poverty, dearth and household, popular political consciousness and practice more broadly, and religion and politics during the English revolution This Collection Arises From A Conference Held To Mark John Walter's 65th Birthday At Christ's College, Cambridge, In March 2013--p. Xiii.