This fascinating study examines one of the most enduring and important economic and social institutions in the lives of working men and women. It provides the first sustained analysis of the nature of apprenticeship in the industries, trades and professions of early modern and modern England. Only the most notoriously abused category of apprentices in the sweated trades have been seriously studied to date.

Apprentice choices, usually made by parents, decided a young person's future status, earnings, security, even marriage partner, for life. Apprenticeship remained the only way of advancement before universal education for many young people. Drawing on a huge variety of original sources - memoirs, diaries, indentures, the contemporary press, legal and charity records - this book presents an original insight into the realities of apprentice life.

Arranged thematically, the book discusses such issues as leisure, education (both formal and on the job), the social regard in which various occupations were held and prospects after qualification. Subjects as diverse as sexual abuse, occupational health, projected earnings, and the social origins of apprentices are also examined.

How certain occupations retained their status (the gunsmith, the cabinet-maker), how others declined because of changing consumer tastes (wigmaker, staymaker) and why others rose in profitability and public regard (the surgeon) also form an essential part of the book. This important work of social history will be widely welcomed not only by British economic and social historians but also by scholars working in the fields of labour, gender and family history.