Author : James M. Rosenheim
Publisher : Longman Publishing Group
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 26,54 MB
Release : 1998
Category : History
ISBN :
Book Description
This important new study considers how the English landed gentry secured their position of enduring wealth and political power across the century which saw their rise from a provincial social order to the national ruling elite. Dr. Rosenheim explores all aspects of the life of the landed order, whether in the country or in London. He looks at birth, education, marriage, and mobility (both physical and social); at religion and Jacobitism; and at public life in both shire and metropolis. He considers landowners as estate managers and investors; as magistrates and politicians; as students and European travellers; and as spouses and parents; and he explores their involvement in trade and commerce, as well as the exploitation of their estates. The result - integrating social, political, cultural and economic history, and making wide use of specific case studies - offers a searching analysis of the subject. It is also a vivid and entertaining portrait of one of the major formative influences on English culture and on the English landscape.