This is the first full-length study of the ideal and practice of hospitality in England between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. In early modern England, hospitality was regarded as a vital social virtue, comparable in significance to the maintenance of honesty or the proper pursuit of honor. Heal's careful study examines the ways in which this notion changed between 1400 and 1700, and demonstrates the significance of the forms and rituals attached to it. Her comprehensive analysis takes into account different social levels and various settings, providing a major contribution to our understanding of society and culture in early modern England.

This study of politics in early modern England uses the relations between provincial towns, the landed elite, and the crown to argue that the growth of personal connections and patronage, as much as of conflict, explains the development of early modern government. It shows how patronage was a vital tool that suited both local needs and the royal will.

An exploration of the cultural contexts of law-breaking and criminal prosecution in England, 1550-1750.

A detailed study of the domestic life of the early modern, non-elite household

McBride provides new perspectives on the roles of the country house discourse she identifies, linking it with a number of larger historical shifts during the time period. Her interdisciplinary focus allows her to bring together a wide range of material - including architecture, poetry, oil painting, economic and social history, and proscriptive literature - in order to examine their complex interrelationship, revealing connections unexplored in more narrowly focused studies.