In examining the differing lives of married women in the old and new worlds O'Day challenges the assumption that women of the North American colonies had more agency than those in Britain. She demonstrates that gender is indeed a social construct and that different societies will construct it differently. However, far from leading us into the realms of abstract speculation, O'Day focuses on the real lives of real women, exploring how far their experience was determined by their family roles and to what extent they existed as individuals, expanding their own horizons and those of future...

This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of current research on the social conditions, experiences and reactions of working people during the period 1750 - 1850.

Few things tell us more of a nation's general well-being than the development of the life-expectancy of its citizens; the rising standards of health that they come to demand; and how evenly that improvement is shared throughout society. Helen Jones examines the record of twentieth-century Britain in these respects. She has much heartening progress to record - yet stark inequalities remain. Her book is thus both a review of, and contribution to, the current debates over gender, class and ethnic inequalities in standards of health in Britain today.

Part of the "Themes in British Social History" series, this volume focuses on the 20th century. Topics covered include education, poverty, health, religion, leisure, crime and popular protest, and is designed for undergraduates, postgraduates and the general reader.

This new history examines the development of the professions in England, centering on churchmen, lawyers, physicians, and teachers. Rosemary O'Day also offers a comparative perspective looking at the experience of Scotland and Ireland and Colonial Virginia.

This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of the current state of our knowledge of the social conditions, experiences and reactions of working people during the period 1750xxx;1850.

The history of the family has become the source of lively controversy and Ralph Houlbrooke's study has made a major contribution to the debate. Thorough investigations reveal the attitudes and aspirations of all levels of society set within economic, political and religious contexts and developments within the period.

An impressively thorough exploration of the changing functions, character and experience of English towns in a key age of transition which includes smaller communities as well as the larger industrialising towns. Among the issues examined are demography, social stratification, manners, religion, gender, dissent, amenities and entertainment, and the resilience of provincial culture in the face of the growing influence of London. At its heart is an authoritative study of urban politics: the structures of authority, the realities of civic administration, and the general movement for reform that...

Explores the important aspects of popular cultures during the period 1550 to 1750. Barry Reay investigates the dominant beliefs and attitudes across all levels of society as well as looking at different age, gender and religious groups.