Now available in paperback This collection explores the remarkable impact and continuing influence of William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, from the work's original publication in the 1760s to the present. Contributions by cultural and literary scholars, as well as intellectual and legal historians, trace the manner in which this truly seminal text has established its authority well beyond the author's native shores or his own limited lifespan. In the first section, Kathryn Temple, Simon Stern, Cristina S Martinez, and Michael Meehan discuss the Commentaries' aesthetic...

First published in 1987, The Professions in Early Modern England highlights the significant role of professional and quasi-professional occupations in English society before the industrial revolution, contrary to what was once historiographical and sociological orthodoxy. The editorial introduction provides an overview of the history of the professions as a distinct field of scholarly investigation, suggesting that neither historians nor social theorists have adequately mapped or explained the rise of the professions to their present place in modern societies. The following chapters bring...