CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2017 The first social and cultural history of vagrancy between 1650 and 1750, this book combines sources from across England and the Atlantic world to describe the shifting and desperate experiences of the very poorest and most marginalized of people in early modernity; the outcasts, the wandering destitute, the disabled veteran, the aged labourer, the solitary pregnant woman on the road and those referred to as vagabonds and beggars are all explored in this comprehensive account of the subject. Using a rich array of archival and literary sources, Vagrancy in English Culture and Society, 1650-1750 offers a history not only of the experiences of vagrants themselves, but also of how the settled 'better sort' perceived vagrancy, how it was culturally represented in both popular and elite literature as a shadowy underworld of dissembling rogues, gypsies, and pedlars, and how these representations powerfully affected the lives of vagrants themselves. Hitchcock's is an important study for all scholars and students interested in the social and cultural history of early modern England.

This volume brings together papers presented at the Fifth International Conference of the European Historical Bibliographies Project, held in Prague on November 7 - 8, 2013, under the auspices of the Department of Historical Bibliography of the Institute of History of the Academy of Science of the Czech Republic. The conference attracted bibliographers, historians and librarians from Denmark, France, Ireland, Lithuania, Germany, Switzerland and from a number of Czech institutions and libraries, who gathered to discuss a wide range of topics. The main theme of the conference was the significance of historical bibliography for historical science. Given the diversity of professional focus among the conference participants, this topic was approached and examined from a variety of viewpoints. The most important outcomes of these meetings were, firstly, explaining the way individual participating organisations dealt with historical bibliography, and, secondly, providing a comparison of different methodological and technological approaches for processing specialized bibliographies in various European countries. This book introduces the wider public to the current shape and prospects of historical bibliography projects across a range of European countries. Obviously, such projects must reflect the needs of their users, which mainly comprise historians and librarians. The ongoing development of historical bibliography does not only involve a technical challenge, but also a methodological one, as well as a societal one when interpreted in a broader context. Mutual communication helps form the future direction of historical bibliography, which will undoubtedly face many new tasks and challenges.