• Introduction ; Emergence: to 1688 ; National Expansion: 1688-1760 ; An Associational World: 1760-1800 ; Engines of Growth ; Membership ; Organization ; Regional and Ethnic Societies ; Freemasons ; Benefit Clubs ; Overseas ; Impact ; Conclusion

Unlike governments and great estates, bird-fancying clubs and oratorical societies do not often tend to leave meticulously kept and carefully housed sets of records. The author has perforce had to fall back on the scraps and fragments provided in diaries, collections of letters and old newspaper columns. These scattered sources he has scoured with impeccable industry and care. His findings, too, have been beautifully arranged and lucidly written down. This volume will surely for long remain the authoritative treatment of the subject - in every way a worthy successor to Clark's now classic study of the English alehouse.

• Introduction ; Emergence: to 1688 ; National Expansion: 1688-1760 ; An Associational World: 1760-1800 ; Engines of Growth ; Membership ; Organization ; Regional and Ethnic Societies ; Freemasons ; Benefit Clubs ; Overseas ; Impact ; Conclusion

Unlike governments and great estates, bird-fancying clubs and oratorical societies do not often tend to leave meticulously kept and carefully housed sets of records. The author has perforce had to fall back on the scraps and fragments provided in diaries, collections of letters and old newspaper columns. These scattered sources he has scoured with impeccable industry and care. His findings, too, have been beautifully arranged and lucidly written down. This volume will surely for long remain the authoritative treatment of the subject - in every way a worthy successor to Clark's now classic study of the English alehouse.

• Introduction ; Emergence: to 1688 ; National Expansion: 1688-1760 ; An Associational World: 1760-1800 ; Engines of Growth ; Membership ; Organization ; Regional and Ethnic Societies ; Freemasons ; Benefit Clubs ; Overseas ; Impact ; Conclusion

Unlike governments and great estates, bird-fancying clubs and oratorical societies do not often tend to leave meticulously kept and carefully housed sets of records. The author has perforce had to fall back on the scraps and fragments provided in diaries, collections of letters and old newspaper columns. These scattered sources he has scoured with impeccable industry and care. His findings, too, have been beautifully arranged and lucidly written down. This volume will surely for long remain the authoritative treatment of the subject - in every way a worthy successor to Clark's now classic study of the English alehouse.