Early Modern England

Abstract:

This course is intended to provide an up-to-date introduction to the development of English society between the late fifteenth and the early eighteenth centuries: a vital period of social, political, economic, and cultural transition, and one which provided the immediate context of early British settlement in North America. Particular issues addressed in the lectures and section discussions, and available for deeper study as essay topics, will include: the changing social structure; households; local communities; gender roles; economic development; urbanization; religious change from the Reformation to the Act of Toleration; the Tudor and Stuart monarchies; rebellion, popular protest and civil war; witchcraft; education, literacy and print culture; crime and the law; poverty and social welfare; the changing structures and dynamics of political participation and the emergence of parliamentary government.

Subject:

Humanities

Grade Level:

Post-secondary

Collection:

Open Yale Courses