Man's Estate

Henry French studied for his first degree and doctorate at the University of Cambridge. After temporary appointments at the Universities of Central Lancashire, Manchester, Essex, and East Anglia, he was appointed at Exeter in 2001. His first book focused on the definition and social identity of the 'middle sort of people' within rural society in the seventeenth century. Having worked on two research projects with Prof. Richard Hoyle at the University of Central Lancashire, he is co-author of a monograph study of land ownership in the Essex village of Earls Coln.Mark Rothery studied for his MA and PhD degrees at the University of Exeter between 2000 and 2005. This was followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship (The Postan Fellowship) funded by the Economic History Society, based at the Cambridge Group for the Study of Population and Social Structure. In 2007, he was appointed Associate Research Fellow on a British Academy small grant project and a 3-year AHRC research project at University of Exeter, both of which were focused on the masculine identities of the landed gentry. He was appointed postdoctoral research assistant on the project 'Consumption and the country house' at University of Northampton with Professor Jon Stobart in April 2010.

• Introduction: The Landed Elite and Male Gender Identities over the Longue Duree ; 1. The World of Learning: Schooling and Training Academies ; 2. Entering into the World: University and Apprenticeships ; 3. Seeing the World: The Grand Tour and Other Travels ; 4. Settled in the World: Marriage, Fatherhood, and the Reproduction of Male Identities ; Conclusion: Normative Reproduction and Change over Time ; Bibliography

this well-organised monograph will surely suggest promising topics for future research on northern gentry.