Description: "[This] is an important contribution to our understanding of the transformations in England's economic, political, and social order between 1550 and 1850. Kuchta handles his assumptions, sources, and arguments with sure-handed grace."--Susan Kingsley Kent, author of "Gender and Power in Britain, 1640 to 1990"
Review Quotes: "[Kuchta's] book sparkles with anecdotes, eyewitness accounts and gossip, so that the reader feels right where the action is, whether it is in 1666 when Charles II decreed that vests would be the new court fashion for men, or in 1869, when the philosopher James Beattie defined masculinity by commenting that 'a manly spirit loves simplicity.'"--"The Sunday Times (UK), 6/30