Meanings of Manhood in Early Modern England

• Focuses on masculinity, an under-researched area of early modern gender studies
• First book to focus on relations between men, as well as between men and women

Readership: Scholars and students of early modern British history; social historians; historians of gender.

Alexandra Shepard, Lecturer in History, University of Sussex

"This is a rich and subtle analysis and adds considerably to the sophistication of our understanding of social relations and social change in the early modern period." - The Economic History Review

"Alexandra Shepard's fine book constitutes an important addition to the literature of gender in early modern England, and her emphasis on diversity in contemporary meanings of manhood lays down a challenge for others to pursue still further." - Bernard Capp, Reviews in History

"This recent study of early modern masculinity is to be welcomed...Alexandra Shepard has increased our understanding of how men's experiences of their gender varied according to their age, marital status and, increasingly, their class." - Continuity and Change, Volume 21/1

Introduction
I. Modelling Manhood
1: The Constant Age
2: The Imagined Body of 'Man's Estate'
3: Models of Manhood
II. The Social Practice of Manhood
4: Youthful Excess and Fraternal Bonding
5: The Violence of Manhood
6: Respectability, Sex, and Status
7: Credit, Provision, and Worth
8: The 'Ancienter Sort'
Conclusion: Manhood, Patriarchy, and Gender in Early Modern England
Bibliography
Index