Books in the The Past and Present Book Series series

In late twentieth-century England, inequality was rocketing, yet some have suggested that the politics of class was declining in significance. This book addresses this claim, showing that class remained important to 'ordinary' people's narratives about social change and their own identities throughout the period 1968-2000, but in changing ways.

The moorlands of Gascony was a place of dramatic rural modernization in nineteenth-century France, transforming in one generation from open moors to the largest man-made forest in Europe. This study draws upon the immense ethnographic archive of Felix Arnaudin (1844-1921) to explore how these changes were negotiated by the people who lived there.

An account of the practice of anatomical modelling in mid-eighteenth-century Italy, showing how anatomical models became an authoritative source of medical knowledge, but also informed social, cultural, and political developments at the crossroads of medical learning, religious ritual, antiquarian and artistic cultures, and Grand Tour spectacle.

This volume examines the concept of bushido - 'the way of the samurai' - to provide an overview of modern Japanese social, cultural, and political history

Presents an account of West African slavery in Cuba and Bahia from 1790, arguing that the large numbers of slaves brought to the same plantations from the same areas of West Africa was a factor in many of the slave uprisings of the time, connecting people and events in a fascinating and unique narrative.

The first comparative account of the engagement of all major European empires with Islam in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, exploring an array of themes, ranging from the accommodation of Islam under imperial rule to Islamic anti-colonial resistance and contributing to our understanding of religion and power in the modern world.

Studies the way in which status symbols operated as a key tool for defining and redefining identities, relations, and power in the hierarchical world of Louis XIV's court.

These essays honour leading historian of early modern England, Paul Slack, by engaging with his work on social policy and the history of political economy. They explore how languages of happiness and suffering developed, and how historians might explore the public employment and subjective experiences of happiness and suffering in this period.

In this unique new study, Martha Vandrei examines how the ancient story of Queen Boudica has been represented throughout history, from Tacitus to the twentieth century, shedding light on the way the British public engages with the past.

A comprehensive survey of recent work in Medieval Italian history and archaeology, set within a broader context of studies on major transitions in Europe from c.400 to c.1400CE. Each of the contributors also reflect on the contribution made to the field by Chris Wickham, whose own work spans the transition from Roman to medieval Europe.

In England from the 1670s to the 1820s a transformation took place in how smell and the senses were viewed. Using a wide range of sources from diaries, letters, and sanitary records to satirical prints, consumer objects, and magazines, William Tullett traces how individuals and communities perceived the smells around them.

Peter Coss brings to life the day-to-day domestic life of the medieval gentry, from their obsession with display, to social codes of conduct and the treatment of guests. Drawing on the rich and rarely studied archive of the Multon family of Frampton, Coss provides an essential contribution to the study of 'gentry culture'.

The Wars of Religion embroiled France in decades of faction, violence, and peacemaking in the late sixteenth century. This study offers a new history of these Wars of Religion from the perspective of the period's great diarist and collector, Pierre de L'Estoile (1546-1611), telling the story of his life and times.