Written in memory of Christopher W. Brooks, this collection of essays by prominent historians examines and builds on the scholarly legacy of the leading historian of early modern English law, society and politics. Brooks's work put legal culture and legal consciousness at the centre of our understanding of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English society, and the English common law tradition. The essays presented here develop a number of strands found in his work, and take them in new directions. They shed new light on central debates in the history of the common law, exploring how law was understood and used by different communities in early modern England, and examining how and why people engaged (or did not engage) in litigation. The volume also contains two hitherto unpublished essays by Christopher Brooks, which consider the relationship between law and religion and between law and political revolution in seventeenth-century England.

A rich picture of the complexities of early industrial development in the north-east of England. Historians increasingly emphasise that, in order to understand the industrial revolution fully as an economic, social and political process, the subject is best viewed from a regional, rather than a national, perspective. This book applies such an approach to the north-east of England in the early modern period, when, it is argued, the region experienced an early industrial revolution. Putting forward several new research findings and much new thinking, and covering many aspects of the economy of north-east England in the period, the book shows how rich and varied it was, and how vital the interplay of social, political and cultural forces was for industrial development. The book demonstrates that the economy of north-east England was not dominated by coal alone, and that previous historians' focus on 'the working class' misrepresents the full complexities of society in the period. Overall, the book has much to offer economic and social historians and historians of regional development generally, not just those interested in north-east England. ADRIAN GREEN is Lecturer in History at Durham University. He is co-editor ofRegional Identities in North-East England, 1300-2000 (The Boydell Press, 2007). BARBARA CROSBIE is Assistant Professor in History at Durham University, and is completing a study of The Rising Generations: AgeRelations and Cultural Change in Eighteenth-Century England. Contributors: A. T. BROWN, JOHN BROWN, ANDY BURN, BARBARA CROSBIE, ADRIAN GREEN , MATTHEW D. GREENHALL, LINDSAY HOUPT-VARNER, GWENDA MORGAN, PETER RUSHTON, LEONA SKELTON, PETER D. WRIGHT, KEITH WRIGHTSON

Written in memory of Christopher W. Brooks, this collection of essays by prominent historians examines and builds on the scholarly legacy of the leading historian of early modern English law, society and politics. Brooks's work put legal culture and legal consciousness at the centre of our understanding of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English society, and the English common law tradition. The essays presented here develop a number of strands found in his work, and take them in new directions. They shed new light on central debates in the history of the common law, exploring how law was understood and used by different communities in early modern England, and examining how and why people engaged (or did not engage) in litigation. The volume also contains two hitherto unpublished essays by Christopher Brooks, which consider the relationship between law and religion and between law and political revolution in seventeenth-century England.

Papers presented at the Cities in the World conference held at Southampton University and organised through the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology challenged the commonly held perception that cities are about the present and the future, not about the past. All cities have an innate sense of the past, and this volume, encompassing as it does cities of the world, explores this sense of history. Archaeological approaches to understanding cities will contribute towards recognising the changes in urbanism throughout the last 500 years. This volume contains over twenty contributions spread across geographical contexts, taking us on a tour of cities from Africa to Europe via North America, Australia and India. The essays discuss the extent to which a city can be defined by its archaeological remains and how the stories of its past inhabitants can be illuminated through the material culture thereby discovered.