Freeborn People: Politics & the Nation in 17th-Century England

A provocative exploration of the ways in which the political cultures of the elite & of the common people in England intersected during the 17th century. Shows that the two worlds were not as separate as historians have often thought them to be; English men & women of all social levels had similar expectations about the traditional liberties available to them under the Ancient Constitution . Throughout the century, both levels of politics were also powerfully influenced by prevailing assumptions about gender roles, &, especially in the years before the civil wars, by fears that the country was threatened by evil forces of satanic inversion.