Sir Keith Thomas is a Fellow of All Souls College and former President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

"Thomas's style is sharp, wry, often amused, the product of a unique intellect that steers away from false generalizations and embraces ambiguity....He saves us from the cardinal sin of thinking that the past was simple, and that we have grasped it....Through these pages we revisit not just old mentalities but wasted hopes and dreams."--New York Review of Books

"The Ends of Life is one of the most enjoyable, provocative, and instructive works of historical scholarship I have ever read. It is a work I will return to again and again, and I doubt that I will ever exhaust its riches."--Books & Culture

"The writing is engaging and reflects a staggering amount of reading from hundreds of men and women, coming anywhere from the mid-16th to the late-18th century....[Thomas] offers a good read on important questions that few historians would dare to ask. Summing Up: Highly recommended."--CHOICE

"A sweeping account of how people in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries gave meaning to their lives."-- ICommon Knowledge

"Here is ready access to the past, filled with familiar and anonymous voices, busy with assertions, speculations, and intellectual differences. Anyone with an affinity to the early modern period will not be able to resist the charm and engagement of this volume. Unlike most other works of history, this one repays repeated visits."--Journal of British Studies

"A wonderfully rich survey of the cultural landscape of early modern England. Written with humanity and insight, it is a delight to read and an idea introduction."--Journal of Social History

"[T]he book is an eloquent testimony to a master historian at the height of his craft."--Jacob M. Blosser, Texas Woman's University

"Keith Thomas intends to 'omit any sustained discussion of religion' in The Ends of Life, a far-reaching study of 'the central values of the English people between the early sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries.'"--The Journal of Religion