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Print Price: $54.95

Format:
Hardback
384 pp.
15 black and white plates and 10 black and white halftones, 156 mm x 234 mm

ISBN-13:
9780199247233

Publication date:
March 2009

Imprint: OUP UK

The Ends of Life

Roads to Fulfilment in Early Modern England

Keith Thomas

How should we live? That question was no less urgent for English men and women who lived between the early sixteenth and late eighteenth centuries than for this book's readers. Keith Thomas's masterly exploration of the ways in which people sought to lead fulfilling lives in those centuries between the beginning of the Reformation and the heyday of the Enlightenment illuminates the central values of the period, while casting incidental light on some of the perennial problems of human existence.

Consideration of the origins of the modern ideal of human fulfilment and of obstacles to its realization in the early modern period frames an investigation that ranges from work, wealth, and possessions to the pleasures of friendship, family, and sociability. The cult of military prowess, the pursuit of honour and reputation, the nature of religious belief and scepticism, and the desire to be posthumously remembered are all drawn into the discussion, and the views and practices of ordinary people are measured against the opinions of the leading philosophers and theologians of the time.

The Ends of Life offers a fresh approach to the history of early modern England, by one of the foremost historians of our time. It also provides modern readers with much food for thought on the problem of how we should live and what goals in life we should pursue.

Readership : All those interested in early modern and eighteenth century intellectual, cultural, religious, and social history

Introduction
1. Fulfilment in an Age of Limited Possibilities
2. Military Prowess
3. Work and Vocation
4. Wealth and Possessions
5. Honour and Reputation
6. Friendship and Sociability
7. Fame and the After-Life
Note on References
Notes
Index

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Sir Keith Thomas is a Fellow of All Souls College and former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He is the author of several highly acclaimed books on early modern England, including Religion and the Decline of Magic, which won the Wolfson Literary Award for History in 1972. A former trustee of the National Gallery and the British Museum, he holds honorary doctorates from eleven universities. He is an Honorary Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and was President of the British Academy between 1993 and 1997.

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Special Features

A unique window onto the origins of our modern ideas of human fulfilment
Brings to life the ways in which people sought to lead fulfilling lives at the dawn of the modern age - from work, wealth, and possessions to the pleasures of family, friendship, and sociability
Compares the opinions of the leading thinkers of the period with the views and practices of ordinary people
Illuminates the central values of the period while providing much food for thought on the perennial problem of how we should live our lives and the goals that we should pursue