Originally published in 1977, this book investigates the controversial question as to whether England has seen two industrial revolutions, whether economic changes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in England deserve to be distinguished as a period in which an economic ‘revolution’ nearly took place, but eventually aborted. The book considers the changes that took place in the most important industries in the period and estimates the significance of these changes for the overall structure of the English economy. It also assesses the attitudes of the various historians involved in the debate and the nature of the evidence on which their arguments have been based. The combination of critical assessment in the introduction and the evidence of the 34 original documents will guarantee a wide readership of the book among students and teachers of economic history.

This book was first published in 1962. Until the era of the Industrial Revolution wool was, without question, the most important raw material in the English economic system. The staple article of the country's export trade in the Middle Ages, it remained until the nineteenth century the indispensable basis of her greatest industry. This book looks at the decline of cloth industry in East Anglia sine the mid-sixteenth century.

This is a classic regional and comparative study of early modern witchcraft. The history of witchcraft continues to attract attention with its emotive and contentious debates. The methodology and conclusions of this book have impacted not only on witchcraft studies but the entire approach to social and cultural history with its quantitative and anthropological approach. The book provides an important case study on Essex as well as drawing comparisons with other regions of early modern England. The second edition of this classic work adds a new historiographical introduction, placing the book in context today.

The Later Tudors is an authoritative and comprehensive study of England between the accession of Edward VI and the death of Elizabeth I—a turbulent period of conflict amongst European nations, and between warring Catholics and Protestants. These internal and external struggles created anxiety in England, but by the end of Elizabeth's reign the nation had achieved a remarkable sense of political and religious identity. Penry Williams combines the political, religious and economic history of the nation with a broader analysis of English society, family relations, and culture, in order to explain the workings and development of the English state. The result is an incisive and wide-ranging analysis that culminates in an assessment of England's part in the shaping of the New World.