The Intersections of the Public and Private Spheres in Early Modern England (Paperback, annotated edition)

The public and private spheres are conceived to be separate and complementary, useful in understanding human experience and social phenomena, gendered and perhaps natural. Taking the usefulness of this model as a focus, these essays ask how the spheres interpenetrate. The collection looks at the varied ways this persistent model of human thought has been formulated, and applies, tests, refines and contests the paradigm. Some of the essays endorse Habermas' view of the concept, some reject it, and some explain the public/private division completely differently. The essays reconsider the usefulness of the model and offer revisionary interpretations of many texts and of their contribution to modern thought and institution.