Review of periodical literature published in 2016: (iii) 1500–1700

Early modern social and economic history periodicals in 2016 presented a diverse, diverting, and rigorous set of contributions, ranging from important new datasets for the history of occupations and labour and further developments in the history of women and work, to powerful reassessments of early modern law and violence, continued debates over the extent and contours of the ‘little divergence’ and ‘girl-power’ or marriage pattern theories in economic history, transatlantic histories of cattle, iron scarcity, environmental histories of fire, and a strong slate of social histories of religion. The year was also a ‘black-letter’ one for studies of balladry and cultural representation. The year 2016 also marked the 500th year since the first publication of Utopia by Thomas More, and the one-year countdown until the 500th anniversary of the Ninety-Five Theses: the famous ‘beginning’ of the Protestant Reformation (celebrated formally in October 2017).