TY - BOOK ID - 8433231 TI - The making of the English middle class : business, society, and family life in London, 1660-1730 PY - 1989 SN - 0520068262 0585312982 PB - Berkeley : University of California Press, DB - UniCat KW - Middle class KW - Families KW - Sociology & Social History KW - Social Sciences KW - Communities - Social Classes KW - History. KW - History KW - London (England) KW - Social life and customs. KW - Economic conditions. KW - Social life and customs KW - Bourgeoisie KW - Commons (Social order) KW - Middle classes KW - Family KW - Family life KW - Family relationships KW - Family structure KW - Relationships, Family KW - Structure, Family KW - Social conditions KW - Social aspects KW - Social classes KW - Social institutions KW - Birth order KW - Domestic relations KW - Home KW - Households KW - Kinship KW - Marriage KW - Matriarchy KW - Parenthood KW - Patriarchy UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:8433231 AB - This is the first major study of a neglected yet extremely significant subject: the London middle classes in the period between 1660 and 1730, a period in which they created a society and economy that can be seen with hindsight to have ushered in the modern world. Using a wealth of material from contemporary sources - including wills, business papers, inventories, marriage contracts, divorce hearings, and the writings of Daniel Defoe and Samuel Pepys - Peter Earle presents a fully rounded picture of the "middling sort of people," getting to the hearts of their lives as men and women struggling for success in the biggest, richest, and most middle-class city in contemporary Europe. He examines in fascinating and convincing detail the business life of Londoners, from apprenticeship through the problems and potential rewards of different occupational groups, going on to look at middle-class family, social, political and material life - from relationships with spouses, children, servants, and neighbors, to food and clothes and furniture, to sickness, death, and burial. Stimulating, scholarly, and constantly illuminating, this book is an important and impressive contribution to English social history. ER -