Politics, Religion, and Society in Early Modern Britain, 1485-1714

3 units

This lecture course is intended to provide an introduction to the political, religious and economic development of English society between the late fifteenth and the early eighteenth centuries. Particular issues addressed in the lectures will include: changing social structure; households; local communities; gender roles; economic development; urbanization; religious change from the Reformation to the Act of Toleration; the Tudor and Stuart monarchies; rebellion, popular protest and civil war; witchcraft; education, literacy and print culture; crime and the law; poverty and social welfare; the changing structures and dynamics of political participation; the emergence of parliamentary government; and the early development of imperial ambitions.