Table of Contents

List of maps and tables; Acknowledgments; List of abbreviations; General introduction; Part I. Social and Economic Structure: Introduction; 1. Land and people; 2. The gentry; 3. Economic development; Conclusion to Part I; Part II. Local and National Politics: Introduction; 4. Law and order; 5. Political history 1640–1688: the heroic age; 6. Political history 1688–1790: the new order; Conclusion to Part II; Part III. Society and Culture: Introduction; 7. The idea of a gentleman; 8. Education and culture; 9. The spread of metropolitan standards; Conclusion to Part III: 'conspicuous antiquity'; Aftermath: towards the Victorian world; Conclusion: from Civil War to Industrial Revolution; Appendices; Notes; Index.

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A study of the formation of a new ruling class in the years prior to British industrialisation.