Review of Wood, A., 'The Politics of Social Conflict: The Peak Country 1520-1770', Cambridge, Cambridge Studies in Early Modem British History, Cambridge University Press, 1999, xvi, 354pp., 3 figures, 12 tables, 14 maps, (hardback), £45.00.

Abstract

This volume is one in a new series which is concerned to "open up new historical terrain or... reveal startling new perspectives on familiar subjects". As its author tells us: "The book is really about two things: it is about the history of working people, and it is about the Peak Country." (p. xv). One might add that the seventeenth century focus makes if a pre-Industrial Revolution study, and as its "Introduction" makes clear - for Australian as well as British readers - it is about "Terms we did not understand": landscape, place and perceptions. The author observes, probingly, that "social historians of early modern England have all too easily turned to contemporary elite antiquaries and travellers for descriptions of local cultures. The result has been the unwitting reproduction of elite prejudices towards the plebeian inhabitants of regions perceived of as marginal, dangerous or backward." (p. 1). Wood's concern is to redress that balance in the perception of a district held dear by him. Clearly the theme will appeal to anyone who is aware that an area where she/he lives, or works, or is descended from, has been hitherto treated at a distance, and not "at the coal face" of research, knowledge, and documentation.