This is going to be a longer review because I think this format explains the chapters best, and because yes I liked the work!
Boswell, Caroline
Disaffection and Everyday Life in Interregnum England
Suffolk: Boydell Press
300 pp., $91.73, ISBN: 9781783270453
Publication date: 2017.
Disaffection and Everyday Life in Interregnum England is a work written by Caroline Boswell that dives into the problems happening in everyday life leading up to and going into the civil war. There is a bottom up socio-political perspective happening here that makes this easy to read. Even from the introduction, there is a political science feeling as Boswell compares life of common people to the royal of the time and the political occurrences. She has broken the book into two parts, Sites of Disaffection and Objects of Disaffection, The former is not literally physically, but more tangible than the ambiguity of the second.
In the first chapter, Boswell attempts to show how “sites” could mirror the issues happening above these citizens. Especially when there was no less than five major changes in (leadership) at this time. She goes on to say that the streets and the marketplace is where a lot of exchanges and tension happened. She asks the reader if the streets and marketplace were simply a “backdrop” for the conversation, or if it affected the conversation because it was a different type of forum was created? Boswell seems to believe it is micro examples of macro political issues. For example, this forum had a larger effect, especially to women. Boswell mentions that women sellers where arrested for being thieves and many other things but there was also the chance that women’s reputations may be put at risk if a man where to start “spitting at hir and calling hir whore.” (26-27) This reminds many that gender and reputation still mattered heavily at this time.
Chapter two looks into at alehouses and how any alcohol type drink was used at the time to ease the stress of poverty and other political discourse. This came with its pros and cons as it built a community, selling served as a job for struggling families, and became a culture point as the crafting of different beer grew (73). But this all connects back to the larger issues of the era. There was the aforementioned poverty, here and later Boswell talks about the excise-man, and others mentioned throughout the chapter. As drink became so ingrained in society and the crafting varied between “strong” and “weak” ale or beer, there became a class and cultural divide over who deserves the “good” drink. However, there is the classic inn setting happening also, as gender (for a short time) and class is not highly focused because it is mostly the working class visiting the inn or tavern. This is where much of the political discussion is happening. Finally, drink is also connected to religion and the culture related to religion in London. All of this comes back to Boswell’s original question to the readers, is it the “site” that made the issue or simply serve as a forum?
Section two starts to discuss specific “objects of disaffection,” as Boswell calls them. These are specific people or things that add to the tension. Chapter 3 is quite straightforward (name and contents) as the government attempts to quiet tensions of lower classes with “meddling soldiers” which made lower classes more upset. Then as the state failed to pay its own army, there is disarray as soldier begin seizing livestock and other provisions from citizens. The army seemed to have affected a bit of every issue also happening at this time, adding heat to the fire. Then chapter four shows the interwoven web of issues with the excise-man. Debt collectors were viewed by many citizens as the singular person that wrecked their society. There was a massive amount of hateridge put against this person appointed for the job by the government as they were called cruel and sinful. The citizens see the excise-man as the reason that they are suffering. Finally, chapter five focuses on the issue of religion with the dissolution of church and state connections (or lack thereof). This last chapter is massive in the sense that, most of the other issues really fall back to this. It seems to be the umbrellas that encapsulates it all.
I think that this is a good and interesting writing style for the topic. There are a few sections where maybe too many citations and quotes happen, but it help to get the reader into the mindset of the time, Another strength of this work is the way Boswell broke up the two parts, I found this to be a massive strength because it feels like the reader starts with what is familiar and zoomed into the issue. But then discussing the taverns and alehouses still feel familiar, but start to zoom out and see how it is connected to previous issues mentioned. It felt easy to digest. There is also a good mix of secondary and primary sources, however the primary sources do not come in as much until part two. That adds to what I find to be almost a dialogue within the chapters in part two. Again, a little hard with so many citations and quotes but it did not ruin the book per say. Last minus for the book is that these chapters are so hard to explain! That is a bit of a joke and serious reflection. Each chapter handles such a complex issue that summarizing them is surprisingly difficult.
Complete side note and not really “review worthy.” A weird connection I thought of when reflecting on section one was the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I thought of the scene where the peasants are working in the field and asks how Arthur became King of the Britons without their vote. I kept thinking about the idea of the “backdrop” that is mentioned in this book and asked myself; is it weird for peasants to discuss politics in the field, but not a street/bar?
Reviewed by Emily Meyers – George Mason University
