The Politics of the Excluded, c. 1500-1850

Description

This collection of essays seeks to shed light on the politics of those people who are normally thought of as being outside the political nation. It shows that these people were not, in fact, excluded from politics; not only did the mass of the population possess political opinions which they were capable of articulating in a public forum, but they were also often active participants in the political process themselves and taken seriously in that capacity by the governmental elite. The various essays deal with topics as wide ranging as riots, rumours, libels, seditious words, public opinion, the structures of local government, and the gendered dimensions of popular political participation, and cover the period from the eve of the Reformation until the Industrial Revolution.

TIM HARRIS is Professor of History at Brown University.

'No-one would argue that the politics of the excluded is a brand new concept, but these essays taken together represent a focused and cogent case and offer an accessible introduction to some of the more interesting and innovative research being undertaken in the early modern era.' - Roey Sweet, University of Leicester, The Economic History Review