Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England

This book reconstructs aspects of the social cultural and political worlds of the non-elite men and women for whom the alehouse had become a particularly important institution and uncovers what the alehouse and what sociable drinking meant to these relatively humble people. Its findings impinge on several broader key issues in the history of early modern England: the dynamics of local governance and the 'politics of the parish'; the nature of popular political culture and popular agency; the social experience and cultural values of non-elite groups; and the formation of social and in particular gender identities.