Customs in Common"Here, at last, is Customs in Common, the remarkable sequel to E.P. Thompson's influential, landmark volume of social history, The Making of the English Working Class. The product of years of research and debate, Customs in Common describes the complex culture from which working class institutions enlarged in England--a panoply of traditions and customs that the new working class fought to preserve well into Victorian times." "In a text marked by both empathy and erudition, Thompson investigates the gradual disappearance of a range of cultural customs against the backdrop of the great upheavals of the eighteenth century. As villagers were subjected to a legal system increasingly hostile to custom, they tried both to resist and to preserve tradition, becoming, as Thompson explains, "rebellious, but rebellious in defence of custom." Although some historians have written of the riotous peasants of England and Wales as if they were mainly a problem for magistrates and governments, for Thompson it is the rulers, landowners, and governments who were a problem for the people, whose exuberant culture preceded the formation of working-class institutions and consciousness." "Using a wide range of sources, Thompson shows how careful attention to fragmentary evidence helps to decode the fascinating symbolism of shaming rituals including "rough music," and practices such as the ritual divorce known as "wife sale." And in examining the vigorous presence of women in food riots from the sixteenth century onwards, he sheds further light on gender relations of the time." "Essential reading for all those intrigued by English history, Customs in Common has a special relevance today, as traditional economies are being replaced by market economies throughout the developing world. The rich scholarship and depth of insight in Thompson's new work offer many clues to understanding contemporary changes around the globe."--Jacket. |
Contents
A lampoon of a clerical magistrate 1800 PRO KB 1 | 1 |
The Patricians and the Plebs | 16 |
Last dying words of another clerical magistrate PRO | 21 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
action Adam Smith agrarian agricultural Assize Atherstone authorities Bengal Bohstedt bread Cambridge charivari church clock colliers common right context corn cottagers Court Leet courts crowd custom customary dealers dearth E. P. Thompson early eighteenth century enclosure England English evidence example famine farmers flour food riots Forest forestalling forms gentry grain halter harvest hegemony historians History husband Ibid industrial industrial revolution John John Clare labour land Le Charivari letter London Lord magistrates manorial mill millers moral economy neighbours Newcastle nineteenth century occasion offenders Oxford Oxfordshire parish paternalism paternalist peasant perhaps plebeian plebeian culture plebs political economy poor popular purchaser R. H. Tawney relations rioters ritual role rough music scarcity seventeenth skimmington Smith social society sold sometimes suggests tenants Timworth tion town trade tradition urban usages village wheat Whigs wife sale women