Synopses & Reviews
How were cultural, political, and social identities formed in the early modern period? How were they maintained? What happened when they were contested? What meanings did “community” have? This path-breaking book looks at how individuals were bound into communities by religious, professional, and social networks; the importance of place--ranging from the Parish to communities of crime; and the value of rhetoric in generating community--from the Kings English to the use of “public” as a rhetorical community. The essays offer an original, comparative, and thematic approach to the many ways in which people utilized communication, space, and symbols to constitute communities in early modern England.
Synopsis
This volume attempts to rediscover the richness of community in the early modern world - through bringing together a range of fascinating material on the wealth of interactions that operated in the public sphere. Divided into three parts the book looks at: the importance of place - ranging from the Parish, to communities of crime, to the place of political culture, Community and Networks - how individuals were bound into communities by religious, professional and social networksthe value of rhetoric in generating community - from the King's English to the use of 'public' as a rhetorical community. Explores the many ways in which people utilised communication, space, and symbols to constitute communities in early modern England. Highly interdisciplinary - incorporating literary material, history, religion, medical, political and cultural histories together, will be of interest to specialists, students and anyone concerned with the meaning and practice of community, past and present.
About the Author
Alexandra Shepard is Lecturer in History at the University of Sussex. Phil Withington is Lecturer in Cultural History at the University of Aberdeen.
Table of Contents
Introduction--P.J. Withington & Alexandra Shepard *
Part I: Networks * Reconstructing Manuscript Networks--Jason Scott-Warren * Defensive Tactics--Margaret Pelling * William Blundell and the Networks of Catholic Dissent in Post-Reformation England--Margaret Sena * Social Networks in Restoration London--Ian Archer *
Part II: Place * A Sense of Place?--Steven Hindle * Overlapping Circles--Paul Griffiths * Citizens, Community and Political Culture in Restoration England--P.J. Withington * From a ‘Light Cloak to the ‘Iron Cage--Craig Muldrew *
Part III: Rhetoric * Rhetorical Constructions of a National Community--Cathy Shrank * The ‘Public as a Rhetorical Community in Early Modern England--Geoff Baldwin * Contesting Communities?--Alexandra Shepard * Readers, Correspondents and Communities--Natasha Glaisyer