Early modern Kent, with emphasis on changes in government from private patronage to a broader commercial and professional power base. This volume, the seventh in the Kent History Project, complements those already published on The Economy of Kent and Religion and Society in Kent between 1640 and 1914. The volume begins with an important new assessment of the impact of the Civil Wars and Interregnum in Kent, which challenges some of the interpretations of previous studies of this period of Kent's history. The major thrust of the volume is however the transformation of Kent'sgovernment from a system controlled by a small number of landed families into one in which, on the eve of the First World War, a much broader range of people from the commercial, industrial and professional classes was involved.There are also detailed studies of political radicalism in Kent between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries and of the impact of crime and the maintenance of public order. The text is supported by appropriate maps, tables and contemporary illustrations. Contributors: BRIAN ATKINSON, BRUCE AUBRY, JACQUELINE EALES, PAUL HASTINGS, BRYAN KEITH-LUCAS, FREDERICK LANSBERRY, ELIZABETH MELLING.