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Reviews 245 literature on the mUitary revolution. Perhaps there is a sort of paradox here. Historians are more likely to accept the work of sociological generalizes when that workreflectstheir own findings. But they are then less likely to learn much that they do not know. The contrast with Barrington Moore's work is instructive. Few historians now believe much of Social origins but the debate that it engendered had its value. It is hard to see Downing generating the same debate. But it is easier to see that his name will crop up in the footnotes of historians, appreciative of the wide range of material that he summarizes for them. One final comparison is worth making. Jack Goldstone's broad comparative survey of Revolution and rebellion in the Early Modern world seems to possess features that make it of much greater value to historians than Downing's book. Both are sociologists, but Goldstone conveys a much more intellectually challenging sense of what exactly comparative history is, and of what it can and cannot do. Furthermore, he attempts to integrate demographic, economic, and political history along a much broader front than Downing does. While Downing's conclusions are much sounder, there is rather less value in being thus 'right' than in being provocatively wrong in the way that Goldstone is. The enterprise scarcely seems worth undertaking unless its conclusions can provide a perspective on the past not readily open to the ordinary professional historian. Glenn Burgess Department of History University of Canterbury Erickson, Amy Louise, Women and property in Early Modern England, London and N e w York, Routledge, 1993; cloth; pp. xiii, 296; 3 figures; R.R.P. AUS$39.95. Erickson has developed a comprehensive analysis of the influences of legal theory and legal practice on the daily lives of women in early m o d e m England. Her work is both an introduction to the laws which defined women's legal and economic activities at this time and also an analysis of the ways in which these rules were challenged, transmuted, and transgressed. By offering a full length analysis of the legal condition of women, Erickson hasfilleda troubling hole in both legal and historical studies. The relation of w o m e n to the law was almost totally ignored by early practitioners of legal history; for example, Holdsworth's monumental A 246 Reviews history of English law, included only twenty one pages on female legal status in its five volumes on medieval law. And, even tiiough there has been in recent years a new interest in this subject, Women and property in early modern England is thefirstbook to synthesize an overview of women's legal history from this work. Erickson has a sound grasp of thetechnicalaspects of the law. Her description of the complex interplay of common, canon, manorial, and borough law is particularly adroit, as this is frequently overlooked by historians who tend to concentrate on one particular jurisdiction, usually common law. Erickson's extensive primary research and the wide geographical reach of her inquiry are reflected in her comprehensive footnotes. The use of a broad range of primary sources has allowed her to discuss not only legal theory but also legal practice. The focus of her book is on the legal and economic activities of the ordinary women who comprised the majority of the population. This is a relatively unusual approach to a gendered analysis of die early m o d e m period, as most accounts of the lives of women at this time draw heavily on die more bountiful sources for the nobility and gentry. The use of Chancery petitions and probate records means that the litigation and inheritance patterns of common women can be explored. The structure of the book is based on die classic progression of women's lives at this time. The section on 'Maids' deals with the upbringing and inheritances of women. The immense legal changes in women's status on marriage are discussed separately in the section on 'Wives'. The use of marriage settlements and the litigation in the equity courts of Chancery which ensued from these arrangements are explored here. Erickson's work on female patterns...

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