What do you think?
Rate this book
Masterless men: The vagrancy problem in England 1560-1640
Examination of the nature of vagrancy in the Tudor and Stuart period.
250 pages, Hardcover
First published October 3, 1985
1 person is currently reading
84 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2008
One of the books I used for my thesis. This is basically the "go-to" book for anything you ever wanted to know pertaining to vagrancy and legislation in early modern England.
March 23, 2013
Having only read the first and last chapters today, this seems a most interesting study of the attitudes behind the treatment of the poor and itinerant workers of the eighty years between 1560 and 1640. Clearly differentiating modern day attitudes, and allowing the records of the period to display the shifts in circumstances and attitudes which went with those shifts, allows a different view of current trends as well.
It is not so much a class situation, as many still tend to view it, but rather the opportunities of those who are established in a society to influence the comings and goings of those less established by property-ownership, financial flexibility and political connections. In the past superstition has been used to manipulate through religious affiliations, and this seems just as current today. But the differences between races as migrations increase worldwide, also brings into play the issues of those who have adhered to colonial hierarchies and those who have resisted them, in the same way that vagrants were seen as destabilisers of society in the seventeenth century and even earlier.
In some ways it would appear that globalization has altered the perspective on these issues, but in many ways the undercurrents remain the same. Not the least this is so because people themselves feel a necessity to withhold self-definition until they are more aware of the conditions in any particular place they travel until settlement is available to them. We are all wary to some degree of strangers and the changes they challenge us to face.
This book goes a long way to clarifying the aspects, and the influences, of various parts of the vagabond story. If only we could consider such issues with a sense of prevention of difficulties rather than merely a control based on fears.
It is not so much a class situation, as many still tend to view it, but rather the opportunities of those who are established in a society to influence the comings and goings of those less established by property-ownership, financial flexibility and political connections. In the past superstition has been used to manipulate through religious affiliations, and this seems just as current today. But the differences between races as migrations increase worldwide, also brings into play the issues of those who have adhered to colonial hierarchies and those who have resisted them, in the same way that vagrants were seen as destabilisers of society in the seventeenth century and even earlier.
In some ways it would appear that globalization has altered the perspective on these issues, but in many ways the undercurrents remain the same. Not the least this is so because people themselves feel a necessity to withhold self-definition until they are more aware of the conditions in any particular place they travel until settlement is available to them. We are all wary to some degree of strangers and the changes they challenge us to face.
This book goes a long way to clarifying the aspects, and the influences, of various parts of the vagabond story. If only we could consider such issues with a sense of prevention of difficulties rather than merely a control based on fears.
Read
August 16, 2012Essential reading for understanding the social and economic context of losing one’s place in service in this period. Very clear regarding sources and dates.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews