Rebellion, popular protest and the social order in early modern England

It is a commonplace (and, indeed, a reflection of how things should be) that history as it is defined and interpreted at the universities is usually about two decades in front of how it appears before the wider world of the schools or the public at large. Nowhere is this more true than in the field of early modern English social history where an explosion of publications and new ideas has occurred over the last few years, but has so far had little general impact. This volume is, therefore, very welcome. It is composed of articles originally published in Past and Present, a journal which, since its inception, has demonstrated its willingness to publish innovatory and exploratory articles of a most stimulating and important nature. We are here presented with a selection of these, and a wider audience is offered the findings of a number of scholars on the problems of social unrest and rebellion in England between the early sixteenth and the early eighteenth centuries. The collection opens with an excellent essay, dating from 1968, giving a fresh view on a familiar subject: C.S.L. Davies's 'The Pilgrimage of Grace Reconsidered'.