In Praise of Ordinary People

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

Luc Foisneau, Maison Française d'Oxford, UKJacob Soll, University of Southern California, USAFrans Blom, University of Amsterdam, NetherlandsHenk Looijesteijn, International Institute of Social History, NetherlandsLarry Stewart, University of Saskatchewan, CanadaInger Leemans, VU University, NetherlandsMaarten Prak, University of Utrecht, NetherlandsJesse Sadler, University of California Los Angeles, USADorothee Sturkenboom, independent scholarMatthew Kadane, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USAPhyllis Mack, Rutgers University, USA