The Local Origins of Modern Society

Explanations of the rise of industrial capitalism often emphasise urban centres as the focus of change. Combining the empiricism of English historiography with the rationalism of Annales , David Rollison argues that the origins of change lie in the countryside, with the flight of manufacturing industry from towns to rural districts. Through a series of sharply focused local studies spanning three centuries, Rollison explores the rise of capitalist manufacturing in the English countryside and the revolution in consciousness which accompanied it. Adopting a conjunctural approach, he focuses on universal subjects such as language, speech and writing, culture, sexuality, gender, class and social stratification, community and the individual, and revolution and evolution to tease out complex cultural meanings. He proceeds via a series of case studies of families and individuals. Starting with significant detail and moving out to build up a subtle and innovative view of English society in the early modern period, he argues that the explosive implications of the rise of rural industry created new social formations and altered the communal, cultural and social contexts of people's lives. The book focuses on problems specific to English historiography such as industrialisation, commerce and trade, religion, provincialism and localism, protest movements and class conflict but draws on a wide range of ideas: literary, anthropological, sociological, geographical and philosophical. Using local histories to explore the myths and legends of a national epic, the book provides an illuminating investigation of English cultural identities.