Peter Laslett Book order

The World We Have Lost is a seminal work in the study of family and class, kinship and community in England after the Middle Ages and before the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution.

Focusing on the history of family life, the author explores the distinct differences in European family structures compared to other regions, particularly in economic and social contexts. Key topics include the roles of servants, the plight of orphans and the elderly, and the complex family dynamics of American slaves. The book also analyzes population turnover in pre-industrial England, trends in illegitimacy since Shakespeare, and variations in the age of sexual maturity over time, showcasing significant findings from early historical sociology research.

This is the revised version of Peter Laslett's acclaimed edition of Two Treatises of Government, which is widely recognised as one of the classic pieces of recent scholarship in the history of ideas, read and used by students of political theory throughout the world. This 1988 edition revises Dr Laslett's second edition (1970) and includes an updated bibliography, a guide to further reading and a fully reset and revised introduction which surveys advances in Locke scholarship since publication of the second edition. In the introduction, Dr Laslett shows that the Two Treatises were not a rationalisation of the events of 1688 but rather a call for a revolution yet to come.

This is an extremely important collection of essays in historical social structure. The volume represents the first attempt to examine in historical and comparative terms the general belief that in the past all families were larger than they are today; that the nuclear family of man, wife and children living alone is particularly characteristic of the present time and came into being with the arrival of industry.