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The Writing of County Histories in Early Modern England

  • Chen Rihua

The writing of county history in England experienced its first boom from the 1570s to the 1650s, during which time a series of outstanding county histories were written, including William Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent, William Burton’s Description of Leicestershire and William Dugdale’s Antiquities of Warwickshire. All these works are manifestations of the phenomenon of ‘county history writing by the gentry’. County histories are primarily about local place names and famous persons, but also give accounts related to rivers, mountains, land, architecture, real estate, family clans, regional customs and histories. This essay illustrates the sociocultural phenomenon of ‘county history writing by the gentry’ in the view of the formation of the nation state, and aims to demonstrate the significance and value of the writing of county histories by gentlemen, from the perspective of the ‘community of county gentry’.

  • Keywords:
  • Early Modern England; Gentry; Historiography,
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Chen Rihua

Nanjing University, China

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  9. Hoskins, William George. 1959. Local History in England. Harlow: Longman.
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  11. Lambarde, William. 1826. A Perambulation of Kent. Chatham: W. Burrill.
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  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Pages: 51-60
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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  • Publication Year: 2023
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
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Chapter Information

Chapter Title

The Writing of County Histories in Early Modern England

Authors

Chen Rihua

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0242-8.05

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

East and West Entangled (17th-21st Centuries)

Editors

Rolando Minuti, Giovanni Tarantino

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

228

Publication Year

2023

Copyright Information

© 2023 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0242-8

ISBN Print

979-12-215-0241-1

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-0242-8

eISBN (epub)

979-12-215-0243-5

Series Title

Connessioni. Studies in Transcultural History

Series ISSN

2975-0393

Series E-ISSN

2975-0261

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