Amazon.com description: Product Description: Covering a period of three and a half centuries between two great upheavals in landed society--the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the Agricultural Depression--this highly-acclaimed study examines the traditional view that for centuries English landed society has been open to infiltration by families made newly rich through trade, office, or the professions. The Stones focus on the landed elite of Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, and the Northumberland counties, combining case histories and examples with in-depth research to test the historical validity of one of the most cherished beliefs about English society, economics, and politics. For this abridged edition, the authors have retained the essential contents of the original hardcover while omitting the supporting scholarly aparatus.