This collection is concerned with the articulation, mediation and reception of authority; the preoccupations and aspirations of both governors and governed in early modern England. It explores the nature of authority and the cultural and social experiences of all social groups, especially insubordinates. These essays probe in depth the ways in which young people responded to adults, women to men, workers to masters, and the 'common sort' to their 'betters'. Early modern people were not passive receptacles of principles of authority as communicated in, for example, sermons, statutes and legal process. They actively contributed to the process of government, thereby exposing its strengths, weaknesses and ambiguities. In discussing these issues the contributors provide fresh points of entry to a period of significant cultural and socio-economic change.

ADAM FOX is Lecturer in the Department of Economic and Social History at the University of Edinburgh, UK.

Preface
List of Figures
List of Maps
The Politics of the Parish in Early Modern England; K. Wrightson
Reformation of Manners in Early Modern England; M. Ingram Custom
Memory and the Authority of Writing; A. Fox
Separate Domains: Women and Authority in Early Modern England; B. Capp Masterless
Young People in Norwich, 1560-1645; P. Griffiths
Disruption in the Well-Ordered Household: Age, Authority and Possessed Young People; J.A. Sharpe
The Keeping of the Public Peace; S. Hindle
Custom, Identity and Resistance: English Free Miners and Their Law, c. 1550-1800; A
Wood Employment and Authority: Masters and Men in Eighteenth Century Manufacturing; J. Rule
Notes on Contributors
Index.