Drawing on an impressive array of original archival research and a series of critiques of recent accounts of economic development in pre-modern England,
The Origin of Capitalism in England 1400-1600
offers a rich and multi-layered account of the historical rupture in English feudal society that led to the first sustained transition to agrarian capitalism and the industrial revolution.
Weaving together political, social, and economic themes, Spencer Dimmock makes the case that capitalism should be viewed as a form of society rather than narrowly as an economic system. This wide-ranging work convincingly argues that the beginnings of capitalist society must be firmly located in a precisely defined historical context, rather than through reference to evolutionary and transhistorical commercial developments. This novel approach is sure to stimulate a thorough reappraisal of current orthodoxies on the transition to capitalism.