Title: The making of the English middle class
Subtitle: business, society, and family life in London, 1660-1730
Description: This is the first major study of a neglected yet extremely significant subject: the London middle classes in the period between 1660 and 1730, a period in which they created a society and economy that can be seen with hindsight to have ushered in the modern world. Using a wealth of material from contemporary sources - including wills, business papers, inventories, marriage contracts, divorce hearings, and the writings of Daniel Defoe and Samuel Pepys - Peter Earle presents a fully rounded picture of the "middling sort of people," getting to the hearts of their lives as men and women struggling for success in the biggest, richest, and most middle-class city in contemporary Europe. He examines in fascinating and convincing detail the business life of Londoners, from apprenticeship through the problems and potential rewards of different occupational groups, going on to look at middle-class family, social, political and material life - from relationships with spouses, children, servants, and neighbors, to food and clothes and furniture, to sickness, death, and burial. Stimulating, scholarly, and constantly illuminating, this book is an important and impressive contribution to English social history.
Subjects: History, Middle class, Social life and customs, Economic conditions, Middle classes, England, London, Families, Family, London (England), 17th century, 18th century, Mœurs et coutumes, Conditions sociales, Bourgeoisie, Manners and customs, Moeurs et coutumes, Histoire, Classes moyennes, Geschichte (1660-1730), Mittelstand, Gesellschaft, Conditions économiques, Economic history, Great britain, social conditions, Social conditions
Places: England, London (England), London
Time periods: 17th century, 18th century