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The discipline of social history has still not given enough attention to the ways in which the perceptions and roles of "ordinary" people changed over time. In these fascinating British and Dutch cases, we see how the study of this evolution imparts historical texture and enables us to understand early modernity with greater clarity.

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Introduction: Margaret Jacob and Catherine Secretan PART I: A NEW SELF-PERCEPTION 1. The ´Simple Burgher´ of D.V. Coornhert (1522-1590): A Dutch Freethinker Opens the Door to a New Age; Dorothee Sturkenboom 2. Common People as Individuals: Hobbes´s Normative Approach to the Ordinary Mind; Luc Foisneau 3. News as a Path to Independence: Merchant Correspondence and the Exchange of News during the Dutch Revolt; Jesse Sadler PART II: THE CAPABILITIES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE AND THE BIRTH OF THE COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL WORLD 4. ´Ordinary´ People and Philosophers in the Laboratories and Workshops of the Early Industrial Revolution; Larry Stewart 5. Accounting and Accountability in Dutch Civic Life; Jacob Soll PART III: NEW APPROACHES TO THE POPULIST VOICE 6. The People in Politics: Early Modern England and the Dutch Republic Compared; Maarten Prak 7. The Populist Voice of the Early Enlightenment; Margaret C. Jacob 8. ´This fleshlike isle´: The Voluptuous Body of the People in Dutch Pamphlets, Novels and Plays 1660-1730; Inger Leemans 9. Ordinary People in the New World: The City of Amsterdam, Colonial Policy and Initiatives from Below, 1656-1664; Frans Blom and Henk Looijesteijn PART IV: FORGING THE INDIVIDUAL 10. Depression and Evangelicalism in the Family of Esther Tuke; Phyllis Mack 11. Self-Disciple and the Struggle for the Middle in Eighteenth-Century Britain; Matthew Kadane

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Luc Foisneau, Maison Fran‡aise d´Oxford, UK Jacob Soll, University of Southern California, USA Frans Blom, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands Henk Looijesteijn, International Institute of Social History, Netherlands Larry Stewart, University of Saskatchewan, Canada Inger Leemans, VU University, Netherlands Maarten Prak, University of Utrecht, Netherlands Jesse Sadler, University of California Los Angeles, USA Dorothee Sturkenboom, independent scholar Matthew Kadane, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA Phyllis Mack, Rutgers University, USA

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