Between 1550 and 1850, how were the English people able to transform themselves from a disparate group of individuals and localities into an imperial power? This book supplements Raymond Williams' seminal work on the country and the city by applying exciting new interdisciplinary perspectives on the question. During the great age of mercantilism, new conceptions of space, time, and social identity began to emerge that are still with us today. This collection of essays by major scholars looks afresh at central issues of early modern English history.

Many long-held assumptions of historians and literary critics are sharply challenged in this interpretation of the cultural consequences of social, economic, and political change in early modern London. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, greater London's population nearly quintupled, surpassing 500,000 before 1700, making it Europe's largest metropolis. Contemporaries often complained that the many problems accompanying this urban development were the result of immigrants flocking to the rapidly expanding suburbs around the City of London. Such complaints assumed that immigrants...

This book explores the complex ways in which England's gradual transformation from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant nation presented men and women with new ways in which to fashion their own identities and to define their relationships with society. The past generation's research into the religious history of early modern England has heightened our appreciation for the persistence of traditional beliefs in the face of concerted attacks by followers of Henry VIII and his successor Edward VI. The book argues that the present challenge for historians is to move beyond this revisionist...

In Britain and the American South: From Colonialism to Rock and Roll, historians analyze central aspects of the cultural exchanges between Britain and the American South.

Along with the Spanish and the French, the British were among the first Europeans to have contact with the native peoples in what would come to be known as the American South. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the British were intensively engaged in colonizing much of the region and developing its economy. The American Revolution severed the governmental links between Britain and its Southern...

Empowered by new wealth and by their faith, early modern Londoners began to use philanthropy to assert their cultural authority in distant parts of the nation. Culture, Faith, and Philanthropy analyzes how disputes between London and provincial authorities over such benefactions demonstrated the often tense relations between center and periphery.