Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Preface Biographies of Principal Correspondents Introduction Schooling University Travel Courtship and Marriage Working Life Concluding Remarks Appendix: The Landed Gentry Families and their Estates Bibliography of Primary Sources Index.

Promotional Information

This important volume assembles - in an accessible, expertly organized, and well-contextualized format - a collection of personal documents that shed considerable light on both the masculine lifecycle and the ways in which masculine identity formation occurred at the level of the everyday and the mundane in the early modern and modern periods. The focus on the gentry represents a welcome, and much needed, addition to the field of British masculinity studies. Furthermore, in assembling documents across three centuries, the editors remind readers that, while much changed between the years 1660 and 1914, continuities in masculine experiences also remained. This is an invaluable resource for scholars and students interested in the history of the gentry, the early modern and modern family, and British masculine identities.' - Paul R. Deslandes, University of Vermont, USA

About the Author

MARK ROTHERY Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton, UK. HENRY FRENCH Professor of Social History at the University of Exeter, UK.

Reviews

'This important volume assembles - in an accessible, expertly organized, and well-contextualized format - a collection of personal documents that shed considerable light on both the masculine lifecycle and the ways in which masculine identity formation occurred at the level of the everyday and the mundane in the early modern and modern periods. The focus on the gentry represents a welcome, and much needed, addition to the field of British masculinity studies. Furthermore, in assembling documents across three centuries, the editors remind readers that, while much changed between the years 1660 and 1914, continuities in masculine experiences also remained. This is an invaluable resource for scholars and students interested in the history of the gentry, the early modern and modern family, and British masculine identities.' - Paul R. Deslandes, University of Vermont, USA