Recent Writing on Early Modern British Urban History (c. 1540‐1720)

Abstract

AbstractThis subject must be approached in the context established by the seminal work of Peter Clark and Paul Slack in the mid‐1970s. In highlighting themes of crisis and order, emphasizing the period c. 1500‐1640, deriving inspiration from the social sciences of the 1960s, and implicitly privileging provincial towns over the London metropolis, Clark and Slack set the agenda for a generation of research. Since then the emphasis has shifted gradually towards the post‐Civil War era, to London as well as provincial towns, to questions raised by the ‘cultural turn’ of historical enquiry generally, and to the British rather than the insularly English scene. Technological advances of the computer age have also greatly facilitated access to primary source material, opening up new opportunities for research and teaching.