***I stopped updating these pages in the summer of 2011. For more up-to-date information visit my webpage at academia.edu by clicking here***

Mark Hailwood is now based at Bristol University: https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/mark-hailwood

On the 1st April 2011 I began an Economic History Society Tawney Fellowship, based at the University of Exeter and the Institute of Historical Research, to start work on a new project investigating attitudes towards work and occupational identity in early modern England.

This page contains information about my doctoral research, and other relevant information about my academic life.

The March Edition of Cultural and Social History includes my Article 'Sociability, Work and Labouring Identity in Seventeenth-Century England' - See Here.

Now in print: Fiona Williamson (ed), Locating Agency: Space, Power and Popular Politics (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010) - which includes a chapter authored by myself on 'Alehouses, Popular Politics and Plebeian Agency in Early Modern England'.

Online Publication: a short article of mine entitled 'John Jarret and Roaring Dick of Dover: Popular Attitudes Toward Drinking in Seventeenth-Century England' has now been published online - Click here.

Research

---

Alehouses and Sociability in Seventeenth-Century England

My thesis is a study of alehouses and sociability in seventeenth-century England. It attempts to provide a social and cultural history of the alehouse that focuses in particular on the its relationship with popular culture, and what it can tell us about the experiences and attitudes of the common people in the period. In other words, it is a history of drinking from below. A particular novelty of my approach is the attempt to combine archival sources—primarily legal records relating to the regulation of alehouses—and literary sources—in particular printed broadside ballads. I reject interpretations that see the drinking of the poor as motivated by ‘the desperate pursuit of drunken oblivion’. Instead, I argue that despite elite attempts to demonise and proscribe the drinking of their social inferiors, ordinary people developed a discourse and a practice of alehouse sociability imbued with positive meanings.

The thesis is organised into two sections, each of two chapters. The first section, entitled ‘The Alehouse in the Community’, examines contemporary ideas about the role of the alehouse in the local community. Chapter One, ‘Serving the Community’, draws on governmental legislation and quarter sessions petitions from Cheshire, Somerset and Wiltshire to reconstruct contemporary attitudes towards the appropriate functions of alehouses. Interestingly, both opponents and supporters of the institution alike refuse to endorse sociable drinking as a legitimate function of the alehouse. Chapter Two, ‘The Alehouse and the Authorities’, utilises quarter sessions material to examine the enforcement of alehouse regulation by local agents of authority, as well as the actions of members of local communities who attempted to resist that regulation. It becomes apparent that the role the alehouse played in facilitating sociable drinking was a key determinant of both a notable degree of leniency on the part of local officials and of the determination of many contemporaries to defend the institution from regulation. Having established that alehouse sociability—whilst officially illegitimate—was nonetheless central to the role played by the alehouse in the local community, section two—‘The Community in the Alehouse’—moves on to consider the social, cultural and political dimensions of that sociability. Chapter Three, ‘Alehouse Sociability and Good Fellowship’, draws on seventeenth-century broadside ballads to reconstruct the ‘cultural landscape’ of alehouse sociability, with particular attention paid to the ‘politics of participation’ in sociability and its implications for our understanding of social relations and identities, and their ‘politicisation’ across the seventeenth century. The chapter also makes use of archival material such as depositions to demonstrate that these cultural values had a force in the social practice of sociability. Chapter Four, ‘Alehouse Sociability and Gender’, adopts a similar methodology to explore the ways in which the culture and practice of alehouse sociability was gendered, and offers not only a revision of the orthodox view of the alehouse as an exclusively ‘male space’, but also examines the tensions between patriarchal norms and ‘alehouse masculinity’. The thesis concludes with a consideration of the ways in which a study of alehouses and sociability reflects on broader processes of social, cultural and political change—and in particular on the complex ways in which alehouse sociability reflects processes of both ‘social polarisation’ and social cohesion.

The major aim of this thesis is to illuminate a neglected area of the experiences and attitudes of the common people in early modern society: those relating to sociability. In this respect its motivation owes much to E.P. Thompson, yet at the same time I hope to demonstrate the value in moving beyond Thompson’s overt emphasis on resistance and conflict in plebeian culture by providing a broader and more nuanced social and cultural history of the common people.

 

Academic Profile

---

After submitting my thesis I took up a six-month IAS Early Career Fellowship at the University of Warwick, during which I helped to establish an interdisciplinary Warwick Drinking Studies Network.

PhD in History:

University of Warwick (2007-2010) ‘Alehouses and Sociability in Seventeenth-Century England’

Supervisor: Prof. Steve Hindle

Examiners: Prof. Beat Kümin (Warwick) and Dr Phil Withington (Cambridge)

Funding: Warwick Postgraduate Research Fellowship (2007-10)

MA in Religious and Social History, 1500-1700:

University of Warwick (2006-2007); Dissertation: ‘Alehouse Sociability and the Formation of Social Identity in Early Modern England’

Supervisor: Prof. Steve Hindle

Funding: AHRC MA Funding (2006-7)

BA in History:

University of East Anglia (2002-2005); Dissertation: ‘The Extent and Limit of Women’s Agency in Early Modern England’

Supervisor: Prof. Andy Wood

Awards and Funding:

- Institute of Historical Research/University of Exeter, Economic History Society Tawney Fellowship, 2011

- University of Warwick, Institute of Advanced Study Early Career Fellowship, 2010-11

- The Newberry Library, Chicago: Newberry Renaissance Consortium Grant, 2010

- Economic History Society Initiatives and Conference Fund Grant, 2009

- Economic History Society Research Fund for Graduate Students Grant, 2008 and 2009

- University of Warwick: Humanities Research Centre Doctoral Fellowship (2008-9) 

- University of Warwick: Sir John Elliott Award for Outstanding MA Performance (2006-7) 

- University of East Anglia: Award for Exceptional Academic Performance, 2003-4 and 2004-5

- University of East Anglia: Winner of Student Scholarship Essay Competition, 2002

Teaching Experience:

In the academic year 2010-11 I taught as an Associate Tutor at Cardiff University, where I ran two courses of my own design: a third-year module entitled Drink and Disorder in Early Modern England, and a second-year module entitled Revels and Riots: Popular Culture in Early Modern England. I also taught as a seminar tutor on the first year module Early Modern England and Wales.

In the academic year 2009-10 I taught as a seminar tutor on the second year undergraduate option module Social History of England, 1500-1700. The aim of this option is to explore social structures, changes, and problems in early modern England.

In the academic year 2008-9 I was a seminar tutor for the second year undergraduate core module The European World - 1500-1720. This course offers a broad survey of Europe in the early modern period by providing an overview of the structures of European society, and by examining the main features of development and change in politics, religion, economy and culture.

Training:

I have completed an Introduction to Academic and Professional Practice (PGA Part 1), at the University of Warwick, October 2008

Organisational Responsibilities

Warwick Drinking Studies Network

This is a research network I have played a key role in establishing during my time as an IAS Early Career Fellow. The network looks to bring together scholars working on aspects of drink and drinking culture across time periods, disciplines, and places.

The Early Modern Seminar:

This is a seminar held within the department at Warwick, which I co-organised with Brodie Waddell and Dr Jonathan Davies in the academic year 2008-9. The seminar meets four times each term and takes the form of either a paper presented by a visiting academic or a discussion of a pre-arranged book reading.

Staff Student Liaison Committee:

This is a departmental committee which acts as a forum for communication between the department and it's postgraduate students. Between 2007-10 I stood on this committee as a representative for PhD students. In the academic year 2006-7 I stood on this committee as a representative for the taught MA programme and acted as secretary. In 2007-8 I chaired this committee. For more information, click here.

Postgraduate Theory Reading Group:

This is a reading group established and run by postgraduate students within the arts and humanities that aims to provide an informal and inter-disciplinary forum within which to discuss a wide range of theoretical approaches to our own and closely-related disciplines. The group meets at monthly intervals throughout the calendar year and focuses on a pre-arranged reading suggested and introduced by a member of the group, with previously covered subjects including Marxism, Derrida, Zizek, Cosmopolitanism, Memory, Hayden White, Space, James C Scott, Walter Benjamin and Richard Rorty. In 2009 I acted as the convenor of this reading group.

Early Modern Reading Group:

This is a reading group established by postgraduate students within the History Department at Warwick that looks to bring together the large number of MA and PhD students studying various aspects of early modern European history, and to help foster a sense of social and intellectual community amongst them. The group meets on a monthly basis to discuss pre-arranged readings of either seminal or cutting-edge contributions to early modern history, and also has an online dimension located on the Early Modern and Eighteenth Century Forum. In 2009-10 I acted as convenor of this reading group.

Plebeian Cultures in Early Modern England: 35 Years after E.P. Thompson

21^st February 2009, The University of Warwick

Plebeian Cultures was a one-day conference for scholars using insights from social, cultural and political theory to reconstruct the experience of the common people in early modern England. Thirty-five years after E.P. Thompson published his pioneering article on ‘Patrician Society, Plebeian Culture’, the conference focused on the influence of Thompson’s work on recent developments in the study of plebeian cultures. A total of sixty delegates, including many key figures in the field alongside a healthy number of postgraduates, attended this event that was kindly sponsored by the Humanities Research Centre, the Economic History Society and the Royal Historical Society.

The delegates heard three panels: the first, entitled ‘The Thompsonian Paradigm’, examined the key concepts offered by E.P. Thompson’s analysis of early modern social relations. Dave Rollison (Sydney) questioned Thompson’s ‘grand narrative’ of English social history, whilst Phil Withington (Cambridge) critiqued Thompson’s division of society into two classes: the ‘plebeians’ and the ‘patricians’. The second panel, ‘Earthly Necessities’, explored aspects of the economic lives of early modern plebeians, with Craig Muldrew (Cambridge) discussing wages and employer/employee relations, and Andy Wood (East Anglia) thinking about conflicts over fuel rights in the period. The third panel, headed ‘Weapons of the Weak’, investigated plebeian responses to power and authority in the period. Bernard Capp (Warwick) explored tobacco riots in mid-seventeenth century Gloucestershire, whilst John Walter (Essex) provided a survey of Thompson’s impact and legacy on the study of popular protest.

The day concluded with a plenary address by Professor Keith Wrightson, who had travelled from Yale especially to participate, in which many of the key themes were expertly drawn together and suggestions were made for how research into plebeian cultures might proceed in the future. This was a very successful and stimulating day and delegates were left debating Thompson’s legacy for many hours after the conference had officially closed.

 

A more detailed account of the conference proceedings has been published in Social History, 34:4 (November, 2009)

Publications:

- 'Sociability, Work and Labouring Identity in Seventeenth-Century England', Cultural and Social History, 8:1 (March, 2011)

- 'John Jarret and Roaring Dick of Dover: Popular Attitudes toward Drinking in Seventeenth-Century England', in Karen Christianson (ed), Intersecting Disciplines: Approaching Medieval and Early Modern Cultures (Chicago: The Newberry Library, June 2010) [Peer-reviewed online publication, available here]

- 'Alehouses, Popular Politics and Plebeian Agency in Early Modern England', in Fiona Williamson (ed), Locating Agency: Space, Power and Popular Politics (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, May 2010)

- [With Brodie Waddell] Conference Report for 'Plebeian Cultures in Early Modern England: 35 Years After E. P. Thompson', Social History, 34:4 (November, 2009)

- 'Review of Angela McShane and Garthine Walker (eds), The Extraordinary and the Everyday in Early Modern England (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)', Cultural and Social History (forthcoming)

Conference Papers:

- 'Alehouses and Sociability in Seventeenth-Century England', to be presented at the Early Modern Economic and Social History Seminar at the University of Cambridge, March 2012

- 'Workers' Representation in Seventeenth-Century England', to be presented at the North American Conference on British Studies in Denver, Colorado, November 2011

- 'Rethinking Men's Conusmption of Alcohol in the Early Modern English Alehouse', to be presented at a conference on Food and Beverages: Retailing, Distribution and Consumption in Historical Perspective at the University of Wolverhampton, September 2011

- 'Alehouses and Drinking Culture in Seventeenth-Century Somerset', presented at Rebellion, Riot and Revel: The West Country in the Seventeenth Century. A Conference in Memory of David Underdown at the University of Exeter, July 2011

- '"It puts good reason in our brains": Popular Understandings of the Intoxicating Effects of Alcohol in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at a conference on Food and Drink: their Social, Political and Cultural Histories at the University of Central Lancashire, June 2011

- '"We never wrangle at paying the shot": The Politics of Payment in the Early Modern English Alehouse', presented at the Early Modern Seminar at the University of Warwick, May 2011

- '"To be called a good companion and fellow-boozer is to me pure honour and glory": Alehouses and Good Fellowship in Early Modern England', presented at the History Department and Royal Historical Society Research Seminar Series at Cardiff University, February 2011

- '"It puts good reason in our brains": Popular Understandings of the Intoxicating Effects of Alcohol in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at a conference on Intoxicants and Intoxication in Cultural and Historical Perspective at Christ's College, Cambridge, July 2010

- 'Women and the Alehouse in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at the Women and Gender Seminar Series at the University of Warwick, February 2010

- 'Popular Attitudes to Drinking in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at the Newberry Center for Renaissance Studies Graduate Student Conference at the Newberry Library, Chicago, January 2010

- 'A Social Cement? Alehouse Association in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at University of Birmingham History Postgraduate Forum Conference: Collaboration and Fragmentation at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford upon Avon, September 2009

- 'Alehouse Sociability and Social Cohesion in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at a graduate workshop on Social Cohesion in Pre-Modern England at Linacre College, University of Oxford, August 2009 

- '"These friends from thee away will slip": Friendship and Good Fellowship in the English Alehouse', presented at the Centre for Seventeenth-Century Studies 12th International Conference: Friends and Enemies - Collaboration and Conflict in the Seventeenth Century at Durham Castle, July 2009

- 'Authority and the Alehouse in Early Modern England: a Reconsideration', presented at the Reading Conference in Early Modern Studies 2009: Authority and Authorities at the University of Reading, July 2009

- '"I had rather keep company with a civil cobbler than with a luxurious gentleman": Inclusion, Exclusion and Plebeian Identity in the Early Modern English Alehouse', presented at the Social History Society Annual Conference at the University of Warwick, April 2009

- 'The Meanings of Alehouse Sociability in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at the Residential Training Course for PhD Students in Economic and Social History at the University of Manchester, December 2008

- 'John Jarret and Roaring Dick of Dover: Popular Attitudes to Drinking in Seventeenth-Century England', presented at the Arts Faculty Postgraduate Seminar at the University of Warwick, October 2008

- 'Ballads and Beer: Popular Print and Alehouse Sociability in Early Modern England', presented at a conference on Text and Image in Early Modern Society at the University of Sussex, September 2008

- 'Reconceptualising Politics and Power in the Early Modern English Alehouse', presented at a conference on Reconceptualising Politics: Power, Resources and Space at the University of East Anglia, March 2008

- 'Drinking and Masculinity in Early Modern England', presented at the Warwick History Postgraduate Conference at the University of Warwick, May 2007

 

Examples of woodcuts from 17th-Century printed ballads: