Parish, Church and People; & An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England

• Parish, Church and People: Local Studies in Lay Religion 1350-1750
  Edited by Susan Wright - Hutchinson, 1988 - X+242pp
• An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England
  Susan Dwyer Amussen - Basil Blackwell, 1988 - xii + 203pp

Whereas during the first part of this century social historians tended to concern themselves with the economic aspects of the daily life of the common people, in the last three or four decades their successors have been more interested in exploring what can be discovered in a much more elusive sphere, the beliefs, attitudes and assumptions of the populace at large. In their very different ways both of these two books make a welcome addition to the historical understanding of English society in the early modern period.