In recent years, historians have begun to reassess the Elizabethan parliament. David Dean's book contributes to this development by offering the first detailed account and analysis of the legislative impulses of the men attending the last six parliaments of Elizabeth's reign.

Examining a wide range of social and economic issues, law reform, religious and political concerns, and affairs both national and local, Law-making and society in late Elizabethan England addresses the importance of parliament both as a political event and as a legislative institution.

David Dean draws on an array of local, corporate and personal archives, as well as parliamentary records, to reinterpret the legislative history of the period, and in doing so develops a deeper understanding of many aspects of Elizabethan England.