Joseph P. Ward's study explores the extensive but largely untappedearly modern records of London's trade guilds (known as livery companies).In many respects, his work is intended as a corrective to previousinterpretations, which followed a time-honored Enlightenment tradition. Thesetended to portray the guilds as hidebound, even retrograde institutions,committed to perpetuating urban oligarchies through various arbitrary controlswhose ultimate effect was merely to dampen economic development. Ward seeks todeflate this commonplace view by revealing the inner workings of the liverycompanies and by examining their role in shaping the lives and identities ofworking Londoners during a period of immense economic and demographicupheaval.