Book excerpt: 'Rigorously intelligent... impressive detailed reconstruction of the material circumstances of the rural poor... This is a bold work that represents economic history at its best.' -The Agricultural History Review'Jane Whittle's excellent monograph manages to combine a detailed knowledge of local society and a mastery of a range of difficult primary sources with an awareness of wider theoretical issues and historiographical debates about the transition to capitalism... A model of logical structure and clarity of argument.' -Sixteenth Century Journal'Whittle maintains a commendable hold on both her arguments and the evidence which she elucidates. There are separate thematic introductions, interim summaries, and straightforward conclusions to each section. The unsophisticated reader (and reviewer) is seldom lost and the book in fact provides and excellent guide, not merely to its own theme but to the ways in which real research can be done on the big questions.' -Philip Morgan, H-AlbionThis is an important new scholarly study of the roots of capitalism. Dr Whittle intelligently relates ideas of peasant society and capitalism to a local study of north-east Norfolk, a county that was to become one of the crucibles of the so-called agrarian revolution. She uses the rich variety of historical sources produced by this precocious commercialized locality to examine a wide range of topics and draw some significant conclusions.