London and England's early modernity: A review of recent scholarship

Abstract

A review of the historical literature on London during the early modern period (ca. 1500–1800) published between 2010 and 2017, focusing on themes of modernization and London's role in associated changes. London's central contribution to processes of modernization was once a historiographical commonplace, but recent work has avoided such narratives in its discussions of social relations, crime and policing, gender roles, cosmopolitanism and global trade, and urban and suburban spaces and environments. By contrast, studies that have stressed such processes, in particular work describing political culture and practice as well as sexual behaviors, have chosen not to stress London's importance, despite its prominent place in their stories.