This is the sixth volume to be published in the major ten volume new history of the county of Kent, and the first detailed study of the development of Kent during the past hundred years. The sixth volume to be published in the major ten-volume new history of the county of Kent, and the first detailed study of the development of Kent over the past hundred years. Each of the ten chapters begins by evokinga picture of Kent on the eve of the First World War and looking at the changes that have taken place between then and the present day in the area under discussion. Particular attention is paid to the impact of the two World Warson Kent; to the influence of national events on local institutions and people; to the role of the county council in the development of many aspects of life in Kent; and to the major economic and social changes of the last thirty years, many of them associated with Britain's entry into the European economic community and Kent's strategic importance as a corridor linking London and Britain to Europe. NIGEL YATES is senior research fellow in church history, University of Wales, Lampeter.

During the Industrial Revolution the attention of contemporaries was drawn inevitably towards conditions in the great manufacturing towns, a bias which most historical writing continues to perpetuate. By contrast, only scant attention has been paid to the development of older-established communities, although their stimulation during this period of transition is of compelling interest. County towns were by no means insulated from the broad currents of economic and social change at work in society, but in a large measure the forces of continuity and stability continued to shape their character. This detailed study of one of Britain's most notable historic towns concentrates on population growth by migration and natural increase, explores the course of marriage, birth and death rates, and concludes with an examination of household and family structure, based on the mid-nineteenth century census enumerators' returns.

Whilst in certain quarters it may be fashionable to suppose that there is no such thing as society historians have had no difficulty in finding their subject. The difficulty, rather, is that the advance has occurred through such an outpouring of research and writing that it is hard for anyone but the specialist to keep up with the literature or grasp the overall picture. In these three volumes, as is the tradition in Cambridge Histories, a team of specialists has assembled the jigsaw of recent monographic research and presented an interpretation of the development of modern British society since 1750, from three complementary perspectives: those of regional communities, of the working and living environment, and of social institutions. Each volume is self-contained, and each contribution, thematically defined, contains its own chronology of the period under review. Taken as a whole they offer an authoritative and comprehensive view of the manner and method of the shaping of society in the two centuries of unprecedented demographic and economic change.

Whittington is a roughneck Tom who arrives one day at a barn full of rescued animals and asks for a place there. He spins for the animals--as well as for Ben and Abby, the kids whose grandfather does the rescuing--a yarn about his ancestor, the nameless cat who brought Dick Whittington to the heights of wealth and power in 16th-century England. This is an unforgettable tale about the healing, transcendent power of storytelling, and how learning to read saves one little boy.

Shakespeare in the Light convenes an accomplished group of scholars, actors, and teachers to celebrate the legacy of renowned Shakespearean and founder of the American Shakespeare Center, Ralph Alan Cohen. Each contributor pivots off a production at the ASC’s Blackfriars Playhouse to explore Cohen’s abiding passion, the performance of the plays of William Shakespeare under their original theatrical conditions. Whether interested in early modern theatre history, the teaching of Shakespeare to high school students, or the performance of Shakespeare in twenty-first century America, each essay sheds light on the professing of Shakespeare today, whether on the page, on the stage, or in the classroom. Guided by the spirit of “universal lighting” – so central to the aesthetic of the American Shakespeare Center – Shakespeare in the Light illuminates the impact that the ASC and its founder have made upon the teaching, editing, scholarship, and performance of Shakespeare today.

Shaping Shakespeare for Performance: The Bear Stage collects significant work from the 2013 Blackfriars Conference. The conference, sponsored by the American Shakespeare Center, brings together scholars, actors, directors, dramaturges, and students to share important new work on the staging practices used by William Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The volume's contributors range from renowned scholars and editors to acclaimed directors, highly-trained actors, and budding researchers. The topics cover a similarly wide range: a close reading of an often-cut scene from Henry V meets an account of staging pregnancy; a meticulous review of early modern contract law collides with an analysis of an actor in a bear costume; an account of printed punctuation from the 1600s encounters a study of audience interaction and empowerment in King Lear; the identification of candid doubling in A Comedy of Errors meets the troubling of gender categories in The Roaring Girl. The essays focus on the practical applications of theory, scholarship, and editing to performance of early modern plays.