Communities in Early Modern England

How were cultural, political and social identities formed in the early modern period? How were they maintained and what happened when they were contested? "Community" has suffered from a problem intrinsic to historical analysis; the tensions between its past and current meanings. Divided into three parts this book looks first at community and networks - how individuals were bound into communities by religious, professional and social networks. The second part looks at the importance of place - ranging from the Parish, to communities of crime, to the place of political culture. Finally the authors explore the value of rhetoric in generating community - from the King's English to the use of "public" as a rhetorical community.