This unit will examine how ordinary people in pre-industrial Britain confronted and dealt with the world around them. It will explore the attitudes, beliefs, norms and values which sustained a community's social existence and pay particular attention to the ritual and symbolic means by which they were expressed. Topics covered may include: the village community; getting a living; avoiding distress; 'moral economy' in theory and practice; forms of recreation; censure and protest; personal relations; women and work; alternative belief; popular Protestantism; literacy and popular culture.