A detailed, but interesting, account of the many factors that fundamentally, and irrevocably, changed the structure of society in England.

The nation went from a populace but largely self-sufficient landscape of farmers and craftsmen, to a dependent structure of rich landowners, paid labourers, wily merchants and gild monitored tradesmen. Disease, inflation, agricultural techniques, transport, and numerous other factors all coincided to create a much wider gap between the richest and the poorest, with many shades of struggle in the middle. The book breaks the key changes down into chapters and sub-section, with a very detailed index and bibliography (amounting to some 31 pages at the end of the book).

The rich tapestry of research behind this means even after almost 30 years of further research, counter-claims and unearthed evidence, many theories remain true and the detail makes for many fine jumping off points into other areas and studies. ( )