Hubbard Professor of History and Professor of Law, Emerita, University of Southern California, USA The book is the product of the enduring partnership between two major historians of early modern England, first planned by David Underdown, and brought to triumphant fruition by Susan Amussen. A must-read for everyone eager to understand the inner worlds of early modern peoples. Laura Gowing, Kings College London, UK Tracing genders power in domesticity, drama and civic life, Susan Amussen and David Underdown provide an object lesson in the benefits of writing across the artificial separations of political, social and cultural history. An outstanding and necessary piece of social and cultural history. In this far-reaching exploration of families, rituals, politics and drama, we begin to understand how fragile order could seem in the early modern world, and why ordinary people as well as monarchs were so preoccupied with testing its limits. The English Historical Review No-one is better placed to forensically examine the powerful idea of the world turned upside-down, and the unruly women and incompetent men that peopled popular fantasy. The authors conceptual framework of inversion and emphasis on the importance of reciprocity in gender relations are stimulating contributions to the historiography. Review Quotes An invaluable synthesis of scholarly material for undergraduates studying early modern gender, literature and social history. This is a vital study for anyone interested in understanding the connections between social practice, culture, and politics in 16th- and 17th-century England. In doing so, they give a glimpse of how we can connect different dimensions of early modern society. Amussen and Underdown show both how these ideas were central to understanding society and politics as well as the ways in which both women and men were disciplined formally and informally for inverting the gender order. Using case studies from theatre, civic ritual and witchcraft, the book demonstrates how ideas of gendered inversion, failed patriarchs, and disorderly women permeate the mental world of early modern England.

Underdown examine political scandals and familiar characters-including scolds, cuckolds and witches-to show how their behaviour turned the ordered world around them upside down in very specific, gendered ways.

Book Synopsis Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640 integrates social history, politics and literary culture as part of a ground-breaking study that provides revealing insights into early modern English society.

Pride's Purge by David Underdown