Commoners
Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700–1820

One of the most important and original contributions to English rural history to be published in recent times.

J. M. Neeson (Author)

9780521567749, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 January 1996

400 pages
21.4 x 13.7 x 2.1 cm, 0.51 kg

'Little can be said in criticism of this wonderful book... Commoners is a major contribution to an emerging view.' Jane Humphries, Journal of Economic History

This is one of the most important and original contributions to English rural history to be published in the past generation. Winner of the Whitfield Prize of the Royal Historical Society in 1994, Commoners challenges the view that England had no peasantry or that it had disappeared before industrialization: rather it shows that common rights and petty landholding shaped social relations in English villages, and that their loss at enclosure sharpened social antagonisms and imprinted on popular culture a pervasive sense of loss.

Introduction
1. The question of value
Part I. Survival: 2. Who had common right? 3. Threats before enclosure
4. Ordering the commons
5. Enforcing the orders
6.The uses of waste
Part II. Decline: 7. Two villages
8. Decline and disappearance
9. Resisting enclosure
Part III. Conclusion: 10. 'Making freeman of the slave'
Appendices
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]