Peter Laslett (1915–2001)

This book is a social study of changes in English society before and after the industrial revolution.

Already in its third edition in 1983, it promises a lot (for example: "Misbeliefs about our ancestors")and is backed up by an impressive list of tables (for example: "Illegitimacy ratios in England, 1540s-1840s").

However, it's a hard read. There is much superfluous, flowery language and you can't help feeling that it is preaching to the initiated. On pg. 277, for example, we read : "From this flows an irreverent impatience with established conventions of the subject as it has been traditionally studied in our country".

So, this is a book that's a bit up itself. I guess that's fine if you like to contemplate issues of social history in fine and synthesised detail with fellow practitioners, but my view is that it has little to offer the curious, general reader.

Being generous, I would say that the book is of its time (it was first published in 1965), of its class and best suited to academic study.… (más)