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This volume tells the story of the disintegration of the early modern polity. By questioning the meanings of the body politic - a metaphor too often taken for granted - it is able to bridge not only the high and low but also divergent approaches to the period. Its opening explorations of the practices and assumptions of politics, of religious life in centre and locality, of social relationships and economic patterns, are followed by a turn to narrative. This is a narrative that attends to the discordant voices even as it situates the actors in their contexts, and assesses their responses.