ABSTRACT
The last chapter discussed a long and partially successful series of attempts on the part of some members of the educated minority to reform the culture of craftsmen and peasants. However, it is clear enough that changes do not always take place because someone wants them. In fact, between 1500 and 1800 European popular culture altered in ways which no one intended, ways which no contemporary could have foreseen – indeed, contemporaries were only partially aware of the changes while they were going on. The major economic, social and political changes of the period had their consequences for culture, and so they need to be described here, however briefly and schematically.
